Sonic in Undertale
by ckaira77
Summary: Sonic falls into the Underground with Shadow and find themselves in a new crazy world full of monsters and skeletons and... etc! Sadly, they don't know how to return to the land that they love... However, there's someone who stands in the way. Takes place after the original pacifist game.
1. Prologue

Note: Takes place after Pacifist ending in Undertale

Prologue

Here's what happened. A friend of ours, she helped us to reach the surface at long last. The sun was beautiful. We've never been so happy. However, when humanity saw us, do you want to know what happened? They did the same thing they did last time. They fought us with no mercy. However, because time has changed, they decided not to trap us in the Underground. They decided to send us to another world that wasn't inhabited by humans where we could live freely and be who we want to be. A few years went by. The humans finally finished their marvelous invention. It was powered by a mysterious force. At first, we thought it was powered by the human soul. We thought it was being powered by their determination. They said that it was actually powered by something that absorbed emotions and turns it to power. They didn't tell us the names of these things and didn't tell us what they were. We went to the new world to find it already populated by mysterious animals who were just as upset as the humans. We decided that there was no point in fighting these creatures. We returned to the same place we did years ago. Asgore named the place 'Newer Home'. He really is horrible with names. Instead of us sealing ourselves below, a dark hedgehog used seven gems to seal us away. He said something about how monsters would never become like them and live among them peacefully. When he used the gems, something crazy happened. We all forgot we ever made it to the surface. To us, our human friend never saved us. We're still here now. Waiting for a being to save us. Perhaps this force from the gems can break the barrier once again. However, who has the ability to control them besides the dark hedgehog we saw? Am I the only one who can remember anything? I have found that I'm forgetting more and more each day. The effects must be slower to affect me than everyone else. Perhaps someone from the surface will save us again. I am willing to hope. Everyone is willing to hope.

-Toriel


	2. Chapter 1 The Underground

Chapter 1

The Underground

"Hey, guys! I'm back! Did you miss me?" asked a blue hedgehog as he ran through the door of his friend Tails' house. The fox's face lit up when he saw his friend. They ran towards each other and were soon embracing each other in a friendship hug. When Tails let go, Sonic saw Shadow was staring into his chaos emerald with a serious look on his face.

"Was it really the right thing…? Sealing all of those monsters beneath the surface of our world? Why am I doubting myself?! Of course, it was the right thing!" Shadow snapped to himself. He hardly noticed that his rival had walked into the room.

"Uh… Hi, Shads! What is this you say about monsters? Don't tell me you got attacked while I was away! I only went to visit some relatives for a couple of days! What happened?" asked Sonic suddenly feeling left out.

Shadow finally realized that Sonic was back. He didn't really react the way Sonic was expecting. He didn't say 'Faker! I was hoping that you had a major accident and wasn't going to come back!' or 'Hmph! So you have returned.'. He didn't even get up and leave the room! He seemed distracted.

"Shadow's been a little out of it since he made the decision. He's trying to prove to the world that he doesn't want anything other than what's best for us. He says 'It's what she would want.'. However, when the monsters showed up in our world wanting to coexist with us, he said that they were a threat to us and he sealed them underground with the chaos emeralds. He's been doubting himself ever since…," Tails explained.

Sonic looked shocked. "He sealed them away with the chaos emeralds?! After they specifically said that they wanted peace?! He didn't even give them a chance?! Shadow, I do agree that they _**might**_ be dangerous, but they might also be nice people! Did you let them explain why they were here?" asked Sonic tapping his foot and shaking his head with disappointment.

"They said they were from the human world. They came here because humans sent them here to live peacefully. I haven't seen a human other than Eggman for years! That's one reason why I didn't want to believe them! Not to mention, none of them looked natural!" Shadow stated.

Tails and Sonic sighed. What could they do? The monsters were already sealed away. Sonic shrugged it off and decided that he probably should think more about it later. He turned to his buddy Tails. "Listen, I want you to take Shadow back to the same place he sealed them. If possible, I want you to try to release them with the chaos emeralds. I don't want any of this to have the possibility of repeating itself. Just think. If those monsters were to escape, you want to know what they'd do? They'd probably come to try to destroy us! I want Shadow to make up with the monsters. If you think we should, we can let them coexist with us. Okay?" asked Sonic.

"Okay," answered Tails.

Sonic went out for a run. Wind smacking against his face as he saw the sights of his home. Mobius really was a beautiful planet. There was plenty of room to run, there were many wondrous sights, and there were almost always blue skies. It was hard to believe that the monsters would want to destroy them over all of this uninhabited land. Sonic knew there was plenty of room. He could understand why the humans would send them were billions of humans. There was much more room on Mobius than on Earth. What was Shadow thinking?

 _He was only trying to consider the safety of the others. I guess I can't blame him for that. He's only been trying to do what Maria would see right. However, his acts were a little too hasty this time._

As Sonic ran, he saw a large mountain. Curiosity swept through the blue hedgehog as he climbed the slope. Was this mountain here before? When Sonic reached the top, he saw Tails and Shadow at the top with the seven chaos emeralds. This mountain was where Shadow sealed them! Sonic approached.

"Hey Tails, apparently, by sealing the monsters, Shads made a mountain!" Sonic exclaimed looking at all of the golden flowers. Tails nodded.

"It's incredible how much power is flowing out of this mountain! It must've taken a lot of chaos energy to build this barrier! I'm going to have to show the others!" Tails exclaimed as he began to text Knuckles, Amy, Silver, and Blaze about the mountain. He got an instant reply from Amy who said she'd be right over. Sonic walked forward and saw a huge hole at the top of the mountain. It was almost like looking into a volcano only you couldn't see the bottom from the top. Shadow was staring at it blankly.

"What if I can't break the barrier?" asked Shadow to Sonic.

"You must try!" Sonic pleaded.

Shadow took a few steps closer to the bottomless pit. The chaos emeralds circled him. As he was about to reach the edge of the hole, his foot got stuck in a tree root. His body launched forward and Shadow bit back a long list of words that he knew he'd regret saying sooner or later. His foot came loose, but it was too late. Shadow, with the chaos emeralds, went plunging into the hole. Before Sonic knew he was even doing it, he was running to save Shadow.

He ran too fast and fell into the hole as well! … … … … …

The two of them fell. The last thing Sonic saw of the surface before drowning in darkness was Tails as he screamed Sonic's name. Sonic wished he could reply, but it was almost too painful to make an encouraging comment considering the situation he was in. All he did was fall.

 **Five minutes later.**

 _CRASH!_

Shadow moaned. Sonic groaned. The two hedgehogs sat up and looked around. Everything was dark. Thankfully, the golden flowers at the bottom of the cliff broke their fall. Only the small clearing they were in was lit. They didn't know what to do. Sonic looked up to the sky. He couldn't see it. They had fallen too far. When they were finally able to stand and talk, they didn't. They didn't feel like moving at all. They didn't have any determination whatsoever. They just wanted to wait for Tails to throw a rope down to them. Nothing happened as they waited.

"What now?" asked Sonic.

"These flowers…,"Shadow said without paying attention to Sonic.

"What about them? They're yellow flowers! Nothing more!" Sonic said as he looked at them.

"No… These flowers… They remind me of someone… They remind me of Maria… Her golden hair… For some reason, the memories that these flowers give me… fills me with…," Shadow stopped Sonic was getting tired of how Shadow couldn't just say something without adding large gaps in his sentences.

"Spit it out already!"

"It fills me with determination!" Shadow said.

He stood to his feet with a feeling of purpose bubbling within him. He didn't know where it was coming from. He didn't want to just wait there anymore. He was there to do something. Shadow dragged Sonic to his feet.

"What are you doing?!" demanded Sonic.

"Don't you get it?! The only way we're ever going to make it out of here is by continuing! If we stay here, we aren't really going to get anywhere are we? No! We have to keep moving! I'll carry you to the surface if that's what I gotta do!"

Sonic closed his eyes and thought. When he opened his eyes, the Sonic Shadow knew so well awoke once more. The one not willing to give up. Shadow still didn't know where this suddenly came from within him. He just knew.

"Let's find a way out," Sonic said with a nod.

They walked around and after about thirty seconds, Sonic yelled to Shadow and pointed to a large purple door. There was a faint light beyond it. They both looked to each other with the same thought. They stepped into the room. They didn't find what they expected! That's for sure! They found…

Another golden flower. Actually, this one was different. It was a big, smiling flower. Shadow coughed and Sonic looked at it weirdly. A smiling flower. The last thing they expected to find.

The flower looked up at them and flashed its biggest smile for them. The two hedgehogs jumped when it moved. The flower was trying not to laugh at them. It pulled itself together and talked with a happy, annoying voice.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! Hmm… You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused!" Flowey said with its big grin.

"IT SPOKE!" Sonic yelled with even more surprise.

"Of course, it spoke! I'm guessing that everything here speaks! Yes, we are a little confused," Shadow told the flower.

"Gee! If you don't know that much, you must not know anything about how things are down here! Someone ought to tell you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do!" Flowey answered.

"Oh boy…," Shadow said without enthusiasm.

"Quiet! Just because I'm a flower doesn't mean that I can't hear your rude statements! Well, are you ready? Here we go! Time to start the lesson!" Flowey announced.

Two hearts drifted in front of them. Both of them were red. Sonic poked it. When he did, he laughed as if had been poked in the ribs. They both looked at the hearts in confusion. Flowey began to explain.

"See those hearts? Those are your souls! They are the very culmination of your being!" Flowey told them.

"These are our souls! Now this is getting weird!" Sonic cried as he looked at his little red heart just floating right in front of him. So defenseless…

"Well, what else do we need to know? At the moment, I'm a little freaked out by the fact that I'm staring at my own soul, but I'm still certain that there's more I need to know," Shadow stated trying not to say the flower's name because he knew he'd look ridiculous by saying Flowey.

Flowey laughed again. "Hold your horses there! We can't rush these things! Your buddy might not be able to keep up!" Flowey stated.

"Are you calling me slow?! I'm the fastest thing alive for your information!" Sonic yelled angrily.

Flowey continued to laugh. The two hedgehogs weren't sure what kind of a laugh it was anymore. An evil laugh? A happy laugh? A laugh that means nothing at all?

"Well, you can move the heart with your mind. Each time you get attacked, your soul will appear. Your soul gets stronger by collecting LV!" Flowey told them.

"LV?" asked Sonic and Shadow in sync.

"Yeah! It's short for LOVE! You want some LOVE right?" asked Flowey.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. What was up with this strange plant? Flowey didn't wait for their answer. It launched small white dots at them. Shadow and Sonic still weren't sure about any of what the flower was saying.

"Get as many as you can!" cheered Flowey.

Neither of the hedgehogs moved. They just stared. There were too many to avoid and they didn't know whether if Flowey was right or not. They didn't move. Shadow thought hard and readied to attack the plant with a chaos spear. It was right then he got hit. Sonic got hit as well. They both yelled in pain and fell to their knees already beaten. Something told them that they only had 1 hit point left. They suddenly realized that the flower wanted to kill them. They looked up at the flower to see that it had a horrible monster face replacing the silly smile. It smirked at them with its evil grin and laughed a horrifying laugh.

"Wait… Shadow? Wh-a-at h-hap-pened?" asked Sonic trying not to be startled by the sudden change from the flower. He looked over at Shadow to see that the dark hedgehog was almost as freaked out as him.

"I-I think we're in trouble…," Shadow said taking a step back. He was stopped when sharp stones appeared and began to circle around them to take their last hit point.

"You idiots… In this world, it's kill or be killed!" yelled Flowey.

The rock spikes drew closer and closer. Sonic officially had enough with that world. It had to be a bad dream… It felt too real to be a dream… Shadow was there and their backs were pressed against each other and both were breathing heavily. Flowey laughed more and more.

"It was nice knowing you Sonic…," Shadow stated bluntly.

"Yeah. You too," Sonic answered.

Suddenly, a ball of fire hit the flower and the rock spikes fell all over the ground. Shadow and Sonic looked around in bewilderment. Another monster who was trying to kill them?

"A horrible creature isn't it? Don't worry. I am here to help you. You see, I have vowed to come by here every day to see if anyone has fallen down. Apparently, I found you just in time. The Underground isn't a place for you hedgehogs. Even if it was you who sealed us in here," said a goat lady who had white fur and wore a purple dress. She stood about a couple feet taller than them and had small horns on her head. She held no weapons, but it was obvious she had pyrokinesis.

Sonic and Shadow stood up weakly. They weren't surprised by appearances anymore. After the flower, they didn't really care. Shadow knew that his reputation had jumped out the door and took a jacket and suitcase with it. Sonic was able to ask the question on both of their minds.

"Who are you? Are you here to hurt us?" he asked.

"I'm not here to harm you child. I'll take you to my humble home where it's safe. My name? Oh! You may call me Toriel!" Toriel replied.

"Toriel? That's a nice name!" Sonic said.

"Whatever! How do we get to your house? We're not exactly too keen on staying here. Is it far?" asked Shadow.

"No. It's not far. Are we going to stand talking and let an enemy find us? We can't have that! You're too weak to battle or act. We should go now. Follow me!"


	3. Chapter 2 Puzzles and Dummies

Chapter 2

Puzzles and Dummies

"Quickly now! Through this door!" Toriel urged them. She was pointing to another purple door. She didn't notice that she had run by a sparkle on the ground. Sonic and Shadow saw the sparkle. They gathered around it.

"Toriel, what's this?" asked Sonic looking at the sparkle.

"That's still there too?! Erm… Sorry, just remembering something. I'll explain when we get to my house. That's a saving device. It's a life saver. Those are really useful! If you die here in the Underground, you come back to life at the last time you touched the sparkle! Why don't you use it?" asked Toriel.

Sonic and Shadow touched the sparkle. It lit up and they felt a little more determined and motivated to continue. Toriel nods and runs through the purple door. Once through the door, they saw that there were plants everywhere and that everything was either a dark color or purple. It was almost downright gloomy, yet it was beautiful at the same time. Shadow felt his guilt return. He had sealed them in a dark, dreary place. It was all his fault.

They walked into another room and a dummy was sitting within the room. Toriel stood by the dummy and pointed to it. "If you're going to live in the Underground, you'll have to learn to defend yourselves from monsters. You will need to be prepared for this situation. Don't worry! The process is simple! When you come across a monster, you will enter a fight and your soul will appear. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation and stall for time. Eventually, the monster will lose interest in battling you. I will resolve the conflict for now."

"Strike up a conversation?" asked Shadow as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"That's right. It may seem silly, and sometimes it is, but it does work. I want you to try talking to the dummy here," Toriel told them.

"You want us to talk to the dummy?" asked Sonic.

"Yes."

"Okay!" Sonic chirped.

Sonic skipped up to the dummy and grinned. "Hello! My name is Sonic! What's your name?" he asked.

The dummy didn't say anything. It didn't seem much for conversation… Shadow laughed at Sonic's attempts to have a friendly conversation with the dummy. He stopped when Toriel glared at him. He never realized she could be so scary…

"That's why I like chili dogs! What about you? What's your favorite food? Well, I guess that because you're a practice dummy it would be hard for you to eat… Never mind!" Sonic said.

"Very good, Sonic! You are naturally very good at this! Your turn Shadow!" Toriel said.

"Wait! I have to do it?! I'm not really good with talking, you see… I'm better at fighting," Shadow explained.

"Well, you can always learn! Just talk about what you want with the dummy!" Sonic answered.

Shadow sighed. He walked up to the dummy. The dummy wasn't much for conversation… Shadow knew that now was a good of a time as any. "Um… Hi. My name is… Shadow. I'm a hedgehog and I rock a mean guitar if I have to… I can also ride a motorcycle, I guess… Well, what about you?"

The dummy wasn't much for conversation.

"Sheesh, Shads! You really aren't good at talking are you?!" Sonic yelled with disappointment.

"Now, now! It was a good start. A little bit more practice and he should be fine. Come on! On to the next room!" Toriel told them as she headed out the door. Sonic and Shadow followed.

The next room was even larger. A weird floor pattern was on the ground. Shadow noticed, but Sonic didn't. He stared at the floor as Toriel began to talk to them.

"There are many tough puzzles that you'll have to solve here. You see, there is a puzzle in this room. I want to see if you can figure it out!" Toriel told them. She walked to the other end of the purple room.

Sonic followed. A frog jumped out at him! Sonic jumped back away from the frog. "What's that?!"

"Oh! That's a Froggit!" Toriel answered.

"In our world, they're called frogs," Sonic explained.

"That's kind of short… Froggits deserve to have longer names! You should try talking to it!" Toriel encouraged.

Sonic stepped up to the Froggit. "Hello! I'm Sonic! I just wanted to tell you that I really like how you have such an amazing jumping ability! The fact that you jump with grace and poise! I can never seem to quite get that down, you know," Sonic told the Froggit.

The Froggit blushed deeply. It had no idea what Sonic said, but was flattered anyway. It was about to attack when it looked over at Toriel. She glared at it sternly. The Froggit shrunk back and hopped away. Sonic didn't get what the big deal was.

"Why did you scare away the Froggit?! It seemed like we were getting along!" Sonic whined.

"Didn't you see? It was going to attack you!" Shadow snapped.

"I think that we should work on dodging attacks later. I don't want you to get hurt! Come on! The puzzle is over here," Toriel said as she pointed to a bridge covered in spikes. Sonic and Shadow stared at the bridge. They had no idea. There was a sign right next to the bridge. Shadow read it out loud.

"The west room is the eastern room's blueprint… Wait a second! The floor plan! It's a map on how to walk across the bridge! We should just have to walk across only stepping on the spaces that are the same pattern as the floor in the western room!" Shadow pointed out looking back at the floor behind them.

"That's very good! You are good at puzzles, I see. However, because you might forget the floor plan, I want you two to follow close behind me. Only step on the spaces I do. Watch closely now. Follow me!" Toriel told the two hedgehogs.

The hedgehogs watched as she stepped onto the space in front of her. The spikes disappeared! She continued to move through the puzzle. Sonic and Shadow followed and made sure not to stumble or step on the wrong space. Finally, they arrived at the other end.

"Great job! We are about halfway to my house. The next room will be a little bit more difficult for you. Come," Toriel explained.

They walked through the door. Toriel turned and faced them with a serious face. "Listen, I have an important thing to ask of you… I really don't want to do this, but I'm afraid I must… I want you to walk to the other end of the room by yourselves. I really am sorry to have to ask…," Toriel explained. She bolted off away from them. At first, the two hedgehogs got a sudden feel of fear because they suddenly realized that they were alone and didn't know their way around. Was Toriel never going to come back? Was something dangerous in the room with them?!

Once the moment of terror passed, they finally just decided to just walk to the end of the room like she asked them.

"It's just walking to the end of a room. We've done this many more times than we can count! Right Shadow?" asked Sonic giving Shadow a nudge as they walked.

"Yeah. Don't nudge me ever again."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Gee, I'm sorry Mister Grumpy!"

"Don't call me that ever again."

They walked in silence. Nothing happened for a long time. It made both of them antsy. Was something going to happen or not?!

The end of the room was in sight! They were almost there! They approached and got closer… Closer… Closer… and… nothing happened. Shadow huffed with disappointment and Sonic exhaled slowly. They looked around. Toriel appeared from behind a pillar that was leaning against a wall.

"What?! You were just behind that pillar the whole time?! How could you?!" demanded Sonic.

"I'm sorry. I beg that you forgive me for doing this. However, I had to test you of your independence. That's why I had to ask that you two walk to the end of the room without me," she answered them.

"I still think that's a dumb reason," Sonic huffed.

"I could have tested you in a more dangerous way, I suppose," Toriel replied.

Sonic straightened up. "I guess that's true! I'm good! No more tests today!"

"Actually, there is one more thing I wanted you to do. I need you to stay here in this room. Don't worry, I'll come back and get you in a little while." Toriel begins to leave the room. She looks back with eyes of concern. "Understand? I don't want you to leave this room. Hmm… Tell you what? I'll give you two a cell phone!" Toriel said. She hands them her number and leaves with a quick goodbye.

"Well, that was fast. Not to mention, we're alone again. What now?" asked Sonic turning to Shadow.

Shadow wasn't there. He had dashed out the door and moved on to the next room. Sonic sighed and ran after Shadow.

"Hey Faker, what if she isn't going to come back to that little room? What if we get stuck there and can't ever leave because we listened to Toriel? I don't know how good these monsters are at fooling people. They aren't going to fool me! Not after what the flower did," Shadow explained.

"Shads! She saved our lives! She showed us how to deal with monsters! She showed us how some traps work! Why shouldn't we trust her?!" demanded Sonic.

"Think of it this way, she can read our minds and is trying to trick us. She's just another Flowey. Come on," Shadow growled.

"B-But…"

"No buts! Let's move!" Shadow yelled.

After a few minutes of Shadow dragging Sonic, they came across another puzzle. Shadow figured it out instantly. Sonic didn't say a peep about anything. Not even the ghost they ran into by the name of Napstablook. He was a fun, music loving ghost! Sonic actually smiled when he met the ghost.

All of the monsters in that area were nice and their attacks were easy to dodge. Neither of them even got hit once. Shadow wasn't exactly positive about anything. They walked for a good twenty minutes before…

 _Ring! Ring! Ring!_

"It's my phone! Toriel didn't forget about us! See?!" demanded Sonic.

"She's just really good at betraying people," Shadow stated.

Sonic answered the phone. Toriel's voice spoke immediately without even waiting for Sonic to say hello.

"Sonic, Shadow, would you rather have cinnamon or butterscotch?" she asked.

"Which do you want? I don't care," Sonic said to Shadow.

"Um… Butterscotch," Shadow answered.

"We choose-"

"Cinnamon!" Shadow yelled over Sonic.

"Okay! Well, will you eat butterscotch if I were to give it to you as well?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sonic replied.

"Alright! I'll be seeing you later then!"

 _Click!_

Sonic put his phone away and glared at Shadow. "Shadow, why did you do that?! That was rude!" Sonic yelled at the dark hedgehog.

Shadow merely laughed. "I wasn't doing that because I didn't trust Toriel. I did that because I just wanted to make you mad."

"Well, you certainly did that…," Sonic answered.

They continued on their quest to find Toriel's house. Well, that or whatever Shadow was hoping to find. Sonic had no clue. Shadow didn't really have a clue himself. He didn't know why he wasn't being so non-trusting to everybody in the Underground. Sure, he was right to doubt the flower. He suddenly realized that Toriel probably was a trustworthy person. However, he knew that if he were to admit it, he'd ruin his reputation and would be humiliated if his first hypothesis was right. He just kept his mouth shut.

Finally! After what seemed like years, they reached Toriel's house. They walked through the door that was unlocked. A sweet scent drifted through the air. It smelled like butterscotch and cinnamon. Sonic suddenly realized he hadn't eaten anything and his belly growled and complained when his brain figured out what the smell was. Shadow looked into the living room. There was a room beyond that where the smell came from. They assumed it was the kitchen. Toriel was sitting in a rocking chair waiting for the delicious product in the oven to finish baking.

"Hey Faker, I'm going to go explore the house. Coming?" asked Shadow. He knew that Sonic wasn't going to get that. He was too busy trying to find a way to appease his empty stomach. Shadow grabbed a hold of Sonic's ear and dragged him down the hallway.

The last room was under renovations. The room next to it was Toriel's room. Shadow went snooping through her stuff. Sonic tried to stop him, but it was no good. After looking through a plant book, he figured out that the plant in the hallway was known as a water sausage. He also looked through her diary expecting to find something interesting to read. However…

"IT'S A BOOK FULL OF KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES!" Shadow yelled. Sonic's hand was over his mouth in an instant. Shadow closed the diary. He didn't get why Toriel was so into knock-knock jokes. He told himself that it wasn't important. He moved on to the next room.

The next room was actually rather nice. There were two beds and new shoes of many different sizes, and, not to mention, NO TV! :D No. That's actually quite horrible. Shadow actually thought that the room was a little boring.

Sonic looked at the bed. He wanted to fall asleep so bad. His stomach grumbled again. He figured he could eat what was in the oven after he had a quick nap. He approached the bed to the left side of the room next to a brown, wooden dresser. He flopped onto the mattress and allowed his face to melt into the feather pillow. He pulled the blanket over him and was out in mere seconds. Shadow never knew Sonic was the fastest at falling asleep as well.

"Well, the bed does sound comforting… And… Well, I'm sure that Toriel won't mind. I guess a nap will do me some good," Shadow said to himself.

Turns out, the bed was so soft that he thought it was silk! The thought of closing his eyes was so tempting that he couldn't resist. Just as Sonic did, he fell asleep.

Sonic yawned. He sat up and looked around. What time was it? It was even darker than it was before. Shadow was still asleep. A wondrous scent was charming his stomach at once. Just on the floor by his bed was a piece of pie. It was butterscotch cinnamon pie. A slice was by Shadow's bed as well. Toriel must've left it there for them.

"Shadow, Toriel is the nicest goat me or you will ever meet. She gives us a room for free, she teaches us the ways of this world without killing or hurting us like Flowey, and she even bakes us a pie. Why don't you trust her?

There was a pause. Shadow sat up in his bed as well. Sonic glanced at the hedgehog's thoughtful face.

"Faker, believe me, or not, I actually do trust her. It's just, I didn't want to admit it."

"Why not?"

"I wanted to make sure that she wasn't another Flowey…"

Sonic stood up and smiled. "You know, if everybody didn't give anybody any trust at all, we wouldn't have any friends would we?"


	4. Chapter 3 The First Step to Real Danger

"I never knew butterscotch cinnamon pie was so good! I've never had it like this!" Sonic said as he ate the pie slice. Shadow had put his slice into a plastic bag and put it into a bag. He made sure that the bag was rather large so it could carry their stuff in case if they decide to go on an adventure. Sonic looks up from his pie. "Should we go talk to Toriel now? Apologize for not listening to her?"

Shadow looks at the ground. He didn't want to talk to her after he had doubted her so much. "I guess it's the only thing we can do now. We can't stay in here forever."

"I need to get in contact with Tails somehow. I need to return to my friends somehow… We both do. I just don't know how yet… Maybe Toriel will tell us!" Sonic said racing to the doorknob. Shadow followed him a little more reluctantly.

They left the room. They looked into the living room. Toriel was back in her rocking chair and reading almost as if she never left. Sonic walked into the room and Shadow continued to follow. Toriel looked up and smiled.

"I noticed that you found your way here on your own. You didn't run into any trouble did you?" she asked.

"Not really. Shadow only doubted you a little. He forced me to follow you right after you left," Sonic answered.

"Er-um… Yeah… I'm sorry. I don't really know how people roll down in the Underground yet. That's why," Shadow added.

"Oh. Well, I'm glad that you trust me now! How did you like the pie? Did it turn out alright?" she asked.

"It was the best pie I've ever had!" said Sonic giving her a thumbs up.

"Thank goodness! I was afraid that I burned it a little! Your rest?" she questioned.

"We slept just fine." Shadow stopped. He sighed. " Listen, I want to thank you for being so nice to us. Even though we would like to stay here and eat your awesome pies forever, we do want to return home. We have friends there who are waiting for us."

Toriel was silent. She stood up from her chair and put down the book without even caring to save the page. She looked to them and began to walk out of the room. "Wait here."

"Wait! Where are you going?!" demanded Sonic.

They both raced after her downstairs. There was an extremely long hallway. Toriel began to walk down it. She stopped and turned back to them. "Go back upstairs. I'm going to take care of you and keep you safe forever."

"We can't stay here forever! We need to find our friends! All they know is that we fell down the hole to our deaths with- THE CHAOS EMERALDS!" Sonic yelled suddenly frantic.

"What are chaos emeralds?" asked Toriel

"They are the seven stones that sealed you down here. Where are the chaos emeralds?!" demanded Sonic.

Shadow quickly inhaled. He then facepalmed himself. Sonic knew what it meant when the Ultimate Life Form facepalms was bad. "The chaos emeralds must've teleported away after coming in contact with the barrier… Now they're scattered all over the Underground. They may be the only things that can save us now…"

"You're not going."

Sonic and Shadow looked to Toriel in alarm. Her face was so serious. Why didn't she want them to go out and save the Underground? Didn't she want to leave? "Why can't we leave?!" Sonic and Shadow both yelled.

"You both will only get killed out there. I've seen it happen again and again. I'm not going to let you through just to find a bunch of emeralds that _could_ save us. What if they don't? Your journey will be all for nothing. What if you don't find them at all?" Toriel asked.

Sonic huffed. "Quit talking like that! If you asked any more what if questions, I'll go out of my mind! There are no what ifs! There's only I wills!"

Toriel flinched. She turned and fled further down the hallway. Shadow and Sonic ran after her. They used their speed to get in front of her. She hardened her stare. Neither of the hedgehogs budged for a second.

"I'm not going to let you two die like when the humans were falling down… The monsters outside of the ruins would always find them. One way or another… They would always die. All because I let them pass beyond this tunnel…," she said slowly tearing up.

"Have any hedgehogs come down here and died?!" demanded Shadow.

"Not yet. However, I suspect that it is possible that you will be accepted as humans because of the way you are. You are more like humans than animals. You have souls. That's enough to get other people to kill you to try to open the barrier."

"So, we'll tell them that we have another way other than killing us! Won't they stop then?!" asked Sonic.

"No. There are some whose soul purpose is to destroy and absorb souls from the ones that they kill."

Shadow planted his feet into the ground. "We aren't going anywhere but out."

Toriel sighed. "Very well. However, I must do what I have to do to protect you. I must destroy the door that goes beyond the ruins. I'm sorry that you can't go back to the surface. It's what must be done," Toriel said pushing past them. She was standing in front of the door and was readying her pyrokinetic powers.

"WAIT! What if we proved we could survive outside of the ruins? Then, would you let us go?" demanded Sonic.

Toriel stopped. She turned back to them. "You really want to leave that much? Fine. I'll give you a chance to prove yourselves. Show me that you can survive outside of these ruins in the Underground," Toriel told them getting into a battle position.

"Wha-?" Sonic asked. Shadow jumped on Sonic to knock him over to avoid a quick starting attack by Toriel. Sonic was breathless on the ground and Shadow was standing back up to face Toriel. He saw his little soul heart floating just in front of him.

"Toriel! We- uh- I- Um… Dang it! I can't think of anything to say that'll help in this situation!" Shadow said with frustration.

Toriel took a deep breath and launched another attack at him. Shadow amazingly was able to dodge it. He was practically running _**through**_ the attack!

"Shads, let me try! Why must you keep us here being held captive when we could potentially save the monsters of the Underground as well as ourselves. Let us go!" Sonic tried.

"There's no point… The same thing will only happen again…"

"What do you mean again?" asked Sonic.

"This happened with the human as well."

Shadow looked to Sonic baffled. "A human has been here before? How can that be possible unless if the monsters were telling the truth about coming from the human world!"

Sonic sighed. "It took you that long to figure that out?!"

"It's just that everyone is forgetting that we were rejected in the human world. Now, everything that happened to the human is happening to you. Everything that's happened is familiar to me in every way. However, if you don't do what the human did, you could be trapped down here and then be killed before you leave."

Sonic clutched his fist. He knew he had to try. He didn't want to hurt Toriel in any way. He was a little sad to leave as well, but he didn't want to stay forever. "Please! We'll do even better than the human! We can run faster than sound for crying out loud!"

Shadow looked to Sonic and shook his head. "Talking isn't helping. We should try sparing her."

"Why should we spare her?! She's not going to let herself be spared!" Sonic yelled.

"Trust me on this!" Shadow snapped.

Sonic shut his mouth and showed to Toriel that he was sparing her. She blinked and shook her head trying to make herself fight harder.

They went round and round in circles. Spare, attack, and dodge. Somehow, when they got hit, they felt only more determined to show her that they could survive on their own.

Toriel huffed. It was their fifth time around. She suddenly realized, they weren't going to take no for an answer. Sadness welled up within her and she looked to the two hedgehogs. They were bravely standing before her awaiting her next attack. There was no point anymore.

"You really want to go that badly? We could stay here together forever… I could make you all the pie you could ever want. I'll do anything," Toriel said quietly.

Sonic got rid of his determined glare. His face completely changed. It was so fast that Shadow could hardly believe it and he thought that Sonic was going to change sides. The blue hedgehog walked up to Toriel and stared into her eyes. He said with a slightly wavering voice, "I want to go home."

Toriel's heart melted. Seeing Sonic's pleading eyes made her know. They were going to save the Underground. They didn't care if they failed or not. They were too desperate to get back to the surface with their friends and everything they once knew.

"I-I'm sorry for attacking you… You really are that serious about leaving. Very well. Promise me that you'll be careful…," Toriel said wiping away a tear. She knelt down beside Sonic and hugged him. Sonic hugged back. When she finally stood again, she walked away back down the hallway with only one look back. After that, Toriel was gone. Sonic and Shadow were now on their own.

"You're too nice for your own good," Shadow said as he shook his head.

"If I wanted to continue, I had to do it," Sonic replied wiping off his tears on his gloves. He hated goodbyes more than anything.

"Well, I suppose that it's time for us to face the world…," Shadow said as he stared at the door just a few feet in front of them.

Sonic nodded. "Right! Let's go save the Underground!"

The two walked through the door unaware of what waited for them…

A clearing sat before them. A flower was sitting in the middle of the clearing and looked at them. Instead of the happy grin on its face, it had a sly smirk. Shadow and Sonic could feel a ripple of terror run down their backs at the sight of the flower.

"Don't you dare think that I don't remember you. To be honest, I'm surprised that you were even able to have the pleasure of meeting me a second time!" Flowey stated.

Shadow and Sonic didn't move. They weren't sure what to say. Flowey's smile vanished. It looked disappointed. "What's the matter?! Did I rip out your tongues the last time we met?! I remember what happened the last time. A human fell down. Toriel saved the human. The human left. However, at the end of the journey, the human fell! I killed the human! Over and over and over…," Flowey told them. It's face changed back to the monster face it had showed off only a day before.

Shadow flinched and Sonic boldly glared at the flower's face. It laughed at their determination to continue. "I know you'll meet the same fate that my buddy did those years ago. Be sure to remember this face. It'll only get worse the more you see me. I'll kill you both one day and absorb your souls! Then, I'll travel to the surface and kill everybody there too. After all, it's kill or be killed…"

Flowey cackled and disappeared into the ground right before them. The flower was gone for now, but its words still haunted the clearing. Another door stood just beyond the clearing where the flower once stood. Shadow and Sonic ignored Flowey's words and stepped through the purple door to the outside.

First step outside of the door and the two hedgehogs got a good smack in the face of what reality was. Cold. Really cold. Actually, the weather was just cold. They didn't have jackets or anything. Sonic shivered and pulled himself together. They started their trek through the powdery snow.

"You know, that flower… Was it right about killing the human? Did it really succeed?" asked Sonic.

"I think it was just bluffing. Toriel said that the human saved them all years ago," Shadow replied.

"What if the flower isn't bluffing?!"

Shadow didn't answer. The horrible reality of the situation was almost more than Shadow or Sonic could bare. Sonic shook it off and tried to change the subject.

"I wonder how long it'll take before anyone realizes that there are hedgehogs here like us! What do you think Shadow?" asked Sonic.

"Probably six seconds," Shadow stated.

"Hm… Maybe you're right! What's that up there? A bridge?" asked Sonic pointing to a bridge with a jail wall with extremely wide bars was sitting on. They could probably still fit through the bars.

Shadow saw the bridge. He was baffled by the wall. but he didn't question it. Why? He wasn't sure if bridges like this were normal. For all he knew, the bridge was a monster itself! It was certainly a possibility.

They began to walk across it. They stopped when they heard footsteps behind them. Sonic slowly turned around. A being stood before them. Sonic and the person were about the same height. He wished he had a flashlight so he could see whether if he should be terrified or relieved.

"Hedgehog, I bid you welcome to the Underground," the beings voice said.

Sonic trembled now. Shadow was now looking as well. Neither of them could see who they were talking to. The snow was falling too fast and it was too dark. The being stuck out its hand. The two hedgehogs stared at the hand.

"What? Aren't you going to shake a friend's hand? Please… Shake my hand…," the voice said.

Sonic reached for the being's hand. He shook the hand quickly. Before he could let go, however…

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" cried Sonic.

When Sonic shook hands with the person, his hand came in contact with a hand buzzer! Electricity shot through him and he fell on the ground. The one with the hand buzzer burst out laughing. Shadow couldn't help but laugh too! The being's face became clearer.

"Ah! The old hand buzzer trick! Sans told me it would work! Although, I didn't expect to find anyone out here to do it to!" a female voice stated. Shadow realized that the female voice belonged to the person who shocked Sonic.

"Owwwwwwww…," groaned Sonic from the ground.

"I'm sorry! I just had to do it! It would have been no fun if I jumped right in front of you and said, "Hello! I'm Lily! Welcome to the Underground!" she said helping Sonic to his feet again.

"You're a girl?" asked Shadow.

"Yep."

"A hedgehog girl?"

"That's right! My name is Lily! Pleasure to meet you!"


	5. Chapter 4 From the Outside

Chapter 4 From the Outside

"Uh… So, you fell down into the Underground as well?" asked Sonic walking after Lily. She nods to him.

"Yeah. I was hiking up a small hill and there was a small opening in the ground. Guess what happened! I fell through the hole, fell through someone's chimney, and ended up in Sans and Papyrus' living room in Snowdin Town!" Lily said slightly amazed by odds of that happening and happy that she ended up in the house of two fairly nice people- er- skeletons.

Lily's blue hair was up in a ponytail and she had a headband on like Amy's. She wore Silver's gloves, Silver's shoes, a purple skirt, and a short, purple shirt. Actually, she looked like a female version of Sonic. Shadow could tell what Sonic was thinking.

 _Okay, I get shocked from a hand buzzer by a girl hedgehog who looks like me. Actually, I would shock me with a hand buzzer too if I could… I wonder what her powers are. Does she have my super speed? Would Shadow kill me if I said that I wanted her to travel with us just so I could learn more about her?_

Shadow was right.

They all walked through the snow. While Sonic's thoughts raced about Lily, Shadow decided to start up conversation. "So, who are Sans and Papyrus?"

Lily looked to him. She then looked ahead. Then, she burst out laughing! "I forgot! Sans told me that they would be following shortly! I think I know where they are!"

Shadow was baffled. "That's not answering my question!"

Lily flinched. Shadow's seriousness drowned out her laughter. She took a deep breath. "You have no patience do you? You'll find out soon enough."

After the answer came the guilt. Shadow decided he should apologize. His reputation wouldn't be ruined if he simply apologized to Lily. Sonic was in a trance anyway. There was no way Sonic would notice and tell everybody about him being soft. "Listen, I'm sorry. That was rude of me. Forgive me."

Lily thought. She stepped closer to Shadow and stared into his eyes. "Your eyes are red. Why are they red?"

"Huh?" asked Shadow.

"Just answer my question! If you can yell at me, I can too!"

"I wasn't exactly born like Sonic here. I was created. That's why my eyes are an unnatural color," Shadow answered.

Lily stopped again and thought. She looked back at Sonic. Sonic's eyes were green like her's. She looked back to Shadow.

"Fine. I'll forgive you. Even if your eyes are deceiving," she answered as she crossed her arms.

"What's wrong with my eyes?! Why don't you trust me?" asked Shadow.

"I was suspicious of your eyes because of something that Sans told me. He said that even the greatest liars can't get rid of the truth. They just put the truth in a storage shed. That storage shed is known as the eyes. You can always see what another is feeling from their eyes. The reason I don't trust your eyes is because I can't read your feelings. It's… almost intimidating," she replied.

Shadow thought. Suddenly, he felt like a non-living being. An android. Couldn't be read. He could still feel emotions, he just could hide them so perfectly that nobody could be certain about anything when it came to him. Guilt returned as fast as Sonic when he sees a wave at the beach.

"You gotta trust me. All that we're trying to do is return home. The Underground is nice, I'll admit, but we have lives back up on the surface. That's why we came here from the ruins," Shadow answered.

"I guess we can kind of relate. Papyrus won't let me leave Snowdin because he says that he has a friend. He also says that I might not be able to handle her yet. He says that once I am able, she and I will become friends. However, I don't know anything about this person. I don't think I'll ever be "ready". The only reason I'm out here is because of Sans who snuck me out here. He's so cool about everything. While Papyrus treats me like his little dog in the doghouse, Sans does his best to get me where I want to be. Back home in peace. Even if he can't quite get me back, he can at least get me a little closer…," Lily stated. Her eyes contained nothing but hope. Hope for the future and for the best.

"Sounds like Sans is very nice. When will we be able to meet him?" asked Shadow.

"If I know right, they should be messing with Doggo! The dog is blind and nose-blind. The only way he can see anything is if it moves. So, they like to mess around with Doggo. Sometimes I just have to feel sorry for that dog…"

Sonic finally snapped out of his silly trance and looked up. He saw that there was a clearing up ahead. A dog hut was sitting in the middle. Lily motioned for them to stay where they were. She slowly snuck up to the two beings in front of the dog hut. "Yo, Sans, Papyrus, I have someone I want you two to meet."

One was short and had a friendly grin on his face. He wore fairly fancy clothes and was a skeleton. The other one was taller and had what looked like a superhero costume on. He also looked quite friendly and didn't look like he meant them any harm. The two were, of course, messing with Doggo. The dog was staring straight at them without knowing it.

"I know that someone is out there! Just leave me alone! I've lived through this long enough!" Doggo barked angrily. Doggo dove back into his hut. The tall skeleton giggled with delight. The shorter one continued to grin and then turned to Lily.

"Sure. Where are your friends?" he asked.

The tall skeleton finally realized who was talking to him and gasped. "How did you sneak out of the house hedgehog?! You were supposed to stay in the living room!" the tall skeleton snapped.

"Hey, she got bored," the short skeleton said in her defense.

"I don't care if she got bored! If she gets any more bored, I'll have to get her a leash! Unless… I see! You just missed me so badly that you just had to come find me! Well, worry not! The Great Papyrus is here to serve! And by serve, I mean, serving dinner! I shall stuff you and the others who are with you with all of the spaghetti you could ever eat! After all, I'm not the Master Chef Papyrus for nothing! What do you think other male hedgehogs? Sound good?" asked Papyrus.

"Uh…," Sonic started.

"Wait for it…," Lily told them.

"Hedgehogs?! Two of them?! Sans, do you know what this means?!" demanded Papyrus eagerly.

"Nope," the shorter skeleton answered.

"I, The Great Papyrus will have not one hedgehog but three hedgehogs to take to the capital! I'll be more than popular… I'll be… A star! A millionaire! A billionaire! Everyone will praise me for my hard work! Nyeh heh heh heh! Undyne will be so proud!" Papyrus announced for all the world to hear.

Lily's ears pricked at the name. "Undyne? Who's Undyne?" she asked Papyrus.

"She's a friend of mine. Undyne's also the head of the Royal Guard. Well, she- Um… She has a very important job that involves battle training with me as well as cooking!" Papyrus answered.

"What is she training for?" asked Sonic.

"She's training for… the time to kill you."

Sonic's eyes went wide and he clutched his fist. Shadow suddenly realized that Undyne was the one who he said that Lily might not be ready for yet. If Undyne was the head of the Royal Guard, she was definitely strong. She would definitely kill them. Lily gasped and summoned two blue swords to her hands.

"Why would she want to hurt me?!" she demanded.

Papyrus looked to Sans who shrugged. Sans shook his head. "Listen, I'll explain once we get back to Snowdin. Well, I'd better go on ahead. After all, I just " **snow"** that you will have a good time talking with Papyrus on the way there. Hey bro, be sure to tell them what an " **ice"** town it is," Sans told them with a quick wave goodbye.

 _Buh-Dum-Tss!_

"Sans, I'll have a real "bone" to pick with you if you don't stop all of these puns!" Papyrus yelled.

"It's really **SANS** ational isn't it?" asked Sans.

 _Buh-Dum-Tss!_

"Stop it!

"Anyway, I'll be seeing ya. " **Bone"** voyage!" Sans said walking off.

 _Buh-Dum-Tss!_

Papyrus sighed. "Sometimes I just don't know what to do with him. He's lazy, makes bad puns, and makes me do all the work! You'll see when we get to Snowdin Town."

Lily smiled. At least, neither of them changed while she was away. They began their walk to Snowdin with Papyrus talking about his career in cooking. He only knew one recipe. Spaghetti. It didn't matter to him anyway. He loved cooking spaghetti.

"How long will it take us to get to Snowdin?" asked Sonic.

"About five minutes. Papyrus removed all of his puzzles when he decided that he would improve them. Also, I don't think that any monster will attack us because of all of us being in a group," Lily answered.

Shadow sighed with relief. "That's good… I haven't seen a saving point around here. I haven't seen one since yesterday actually!"

Sonic's ears pricked when he heard Shadow say that. He looked around and saw a saving point just ahead. After Shadow, Lily, and Sonic touched it, they moved on through the snow. They ran into many different dogs. Papyrus had a lot of dog friends and a couple of them would jump on them and lick his face while the others would simply look at him and restrain themselves from attacking the hedgehogs.

FINALLY…

"I think I see some twinkling lights up ahead! I think we're almost there!" Sonic announced pointing towards the twinkling lights. "It looks like the town is celebrating Christmas or something."

"That's right! Christmas time is always my favorite time of the year. I'm hoping to get more action figures this Christmas from Santa!" Papyrus stated excitedly.

"He thinks that they make him look cooler," Lily whispered in Shadow's ear with a grin.

Sonic looked over and saw Lily whispering something to Shadow. The blue hedgehog shoved Shadow out of the way and looked to Lily with a baffled expression. "Since when did you two form a relationship?!"

Shadow reinserted himself into the picture and crossed his arms. "Okay, listen up. This is not a love boat. Don't get the wrong idea. That goes to you too readers. This is just a friendship. No love boats. Friendships."

Sonic flattened his ears. "Yeah, take out the n and it's fried ships!" he snapped.

Lily shook her head. "Where's Sans when you need him?! The two newbies are making jokes!" She looks over with satisfaction.

"I just had to make an appearance. I live to serve. Even if I'm not living. I guess that's why I suck at badminton," Sans stated.

Papyrus rolled his eyes at the chaos. Well, actually, he just stood there. He didn't really have eyes to roll. Lily was talking to Sans about what was up with Shadow and Sonic while the two male hedgehogs were about to have a serious duel. He, The Great Papyrus, knew that he probably could resolve the situation, but he knew that he wasn't really cut out for it. So, he watched.

"You all have no idea how hard it is to sit out and watch all of this, you know."

So, once Sans got the picture, he looked back at the two hedgehogs. "Well, it looks like their friendship has wrecked."

"It's sinking faster than the Titanic. Did I cause this?" asked Lily still baffled about the situation.

"Well, no. Not exactly. Sonic is just jealous. Sort of like Papyrus when he looks at my mailbox," Sans explained.

"I WASN'T JEALOUS!" yelled Papyrus from the sidelines.

"You see, he wants to be popular among the monsters of the Underground. Despite how cool he is, he doesn't really have many friends. So, I kind of have to feel bad when I notice how popular I am and how he deserves the exact same popularity. Sonic feels jealous because you befriended Shadow and not him first I guess. Like how Papyrus feels jealous about getting popularity after me. Well, I still admire how hard Papyrus tries! It's another thing that makes him cool," Sans finished.

"Well, Sonic isn't really being that cool about it. We only met about forty-five minutes ago," Lily said.

"Maybe you're just someone special," Sans answered. He winked at her. "You never really know right?"

Lily didn't know quite how to respond. She hadn't really spent much time with Sonic yet. She still didn't know quite what he looked like yet. It was dark and it's hard to see a blue blur in the snowy weather. Shadow had dark fur, so he was easy to see. Also, she didn't know much about Sonic's personality.

"Well, I think you have an idea now," Sans said holding up a light bulb above Lily's head.

"I believe I do," Lily said as she walked off towards the hedgehogs.

Shadow was trying to bend Sonic's leg behind his head and Sonic was biting Shadow's arm. Both of them were growling at each other. Lily broke the two of them apart (somehow) and reminded them that they were doing a pacifist run. Sonic and Shadow reluctantly nod and they stand up again. Sans stood next to Sonic.

"You know, you should really learn to chill," Sans told the hedgehog.

"It'd be easier if there were such things as chill pills," Sonic huffed as he tapped his foot impatiently as he stared at Shadow.

Sans dug his hand through his pocket and gave Sonic a few blue pills. "Here. Take a chill pill."

Sonic was confused again. He didn't question the skeleton, though. He took the pills and dumped them into his mouth. For some reason, his emotions weren't different. Sonic shivered. Was it getting colder? Before he knew it, he had turned into a solid block of ice!

"Mmph-hm-hmph!" Sonic cried from inside the block of ice.

Everybody looked at Sans who only grinned as usual. "I must have given him the literal kind!"

As soon as Sonic thawed out, they made their way to Snowdin Town. Papyrus was once again babbling about his greatness all the way there with more puns from Sans and, surprisingly, Lily chatting with Sonic.

Once they reached Snowdin, the lights chased away the darkness and Lily looked to Sonic who looked back to her. Sonic's blue fur became more noticeable and his red, belted shoes lit up. His eyes glimmered with eagerness of exploring the town and his smile was like none she had ever known. The first thought that came to her head was 'Why does he have to be so cute?'

"Well, welcome to Snowdin Town!" Papyrus announced.


	6. Chapter 5 Strong Enough

Snowdin Town. A play on words. Snowed in Town to Snowdin Town. If you're tired, stay at the hotel. If you're hungry, drop by Grillby's. If you want to read or learn, go to the library. Sorry. I mean the 'librarby'. The sign is misspelled. Then, if you get bored, you get to watch the wacky skeletons do their thing. Two of them. A tall one and a short one. They appeared out of nowhere a few years ago. None of us know quite from where. However, there are rumors…

"Hey Shadz, what do you think of that shop rabbit who told us all of that stuff earlier? That rabbit was a little weird. The rabbit's sister was pretty nice, though," Sonic said to Shadow.

Shadow thought for a moment. They had spent the entire day exploring Snowdin. He noticed that people were acting… strange around them. He didn't know why. Sans said that he would explain earlier that day. Although, the day ended before they could really talk. Papyrus gave them his room. He'd sleep in the living room. They found it hilarious that Lily actually slept in the dog house. She said that sleeping there was like being left on a pile of bricks for eight hours before simply getting up again. He thought so fast about everything that had happened that he forgot that Sonic even asked him a question.

"Dude, don't pretend that you're asleep. I can tell that you're awake. I can see that your eyes are WIDE open!" Sonic snapped.

"I didn't really give the person that much thought. Let me sleep," Shadow replied.

"Alright, what are you thinking?" asked Sonic.

Shadow paused. What should he say? He felt like someone was listening. The air might have ears. The walls might be their enemy. The ceiling could bring their doom at any second. He knew that was highly unlikely to happen, but it was likely enough. He thought before giving Sonic an answer. Sonic interrupted before he could speak.

"I was never able to get you, Shadow. Your motives, your personality, your… your perspective mostly. What do you see that I don't? What do you think about things? How do you judge situations? What's your logic? I've never been able to figure it out. That's kinda why I wanna know what you're thinking all the time. Just this once, tell me what's on your mind," Sonic said to Shadow.

There was a long silence. Shadow heaved a sigh.

"You wanna know? Well, I've been noticing things. I've been noticing that people have been looking at us like they've never seen anything greater! Like their hopes and dreams are just an arm length away. I feel like… Sans knows something about it. He was looking at me specifically. However, rather than hope, he looked like he was asking me something," Shadow answered.

"Like what?"

"I don't quite have an answer to that. I think there's more to him than meets the eye."

Sonic thought. "I didn't see him staring like that at me. I think he was perfectly normal. Is this something that's only with you? You are kinda… dark…," Sonic said.

"Why must my past actions make everyone not normal around me?! It's… just… wrong…"

"I wasn't saying that was it! I just said that could be it… I honestly think that you've improved quite a bit. You may mess up from time to time, like when you mistrusted Toriel, but you're a lot nicer than how you started… I think that the Underground is kinda giving you a chance to get better at being a good person. I mean, interacting with nice monsters, dealing with situations, and making friends."

Shadow smiled slightly. "You're always the one who gives me the lecture aren't you? Last night, you were doing this too back at Toriel's. Now, we're with these bro skeletons and you're doing it again. Heh. I suppose I need it."

"Have you learned anything about the chaos emeralds?"

"I haven't felt their power since we fell into the hole with them. We'll just have to keep searching. We can't do it if we stay up chatting all night, though," Shadow replied.

"Yeah. You're right. Well, good night, Shadz!"

 _But… This doesn't… Hm…_

Shadow felt the presence disappear as he drifted away to Dreamland. He was curious to figure out what the presence was about. He was just too tired to want to look into it. It was all he remembered before being pulled away from consciousness.

 _It doesn't add up to what I saw…_

When the sun began to fly through the window again, Papyrus kicked open the door to his room causing the two hedgehogs to wake up in a flash. Sonic fell out of the bed and landed on Shadow who nearly got a broken nose from Sonic's elbow crushing Shadow's nose.

"Rise and shine! Another day ahead of us! C'mon! Don't just sit around and do nothing all day! What would you like for breakfast? Spaghetti or spaghetti?" asked Papyrus.

Shadow rubbed his eyes. He then hopped to his feet in terror. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?! THAT'S NOT A BREAKFAST FOOD! THAT'S COMING FROM A CHEF TOO! I'LL MAKE SOMETHING YOU WON'T FORGET!"

Sonic was now wide awake and was staring at Shadow like he was mad. "You cook?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because it's one of my hidden secrets… THAT'S RIGHT! I COOK BETTER THAN ANY HEDGEHOG ON THE PLANET!" Shadow yelled running downstairs.

Lily burst into the house wearing her scarf. She looked annoyed. "What's up with all the racket?! It's eight in the morning and I like to sleep in around the holidays!" she snapped.

Papyrus, Sans, and Sonic were all looking into the kitchen with wonderment. They had never seen anything like what they were witnessing right at that second.

"What are you staring at?! It can't be that impress- What the heck is happening to your kitchen?!" she demanded.

"Papyrus, what did you do…?" asked Sans.

"I don't know! I just mentioned breakfast and he went crazy!" Papyrus yelled.

"Normally, I'd have a pun ready for any situation, but a hedgehog destroying our kitchen because he was mad about breakfast isn't really something I've ever had to think about…," Sans replied still unable to believe what he was seeing.

"He's using up all of my baking soda! I don't use it, but I'm still mad!" yelled Papyrus.

"He just thinks it's **soda** -licious!" Lily replied with a wink.

"Wait! How come you came up with a pun, but I didn't?!" demanded Sans.

"He left the water running!" yelled Papyrus.

Sans knew this was the time to redeem himself. " **Water** you standing around for? You'd better go catch it!"

"The water is hot too! He's really raising the water bill! It's all evaporating all over the place!" Papyrus yelled.

"Well, the water won't be **mist!** Sorry, but I'm going to have to drop the **condensation**. As for the bill, you'd better leave it with the duck. Don't want it to start feeling **down!** " Sans continued.

Sonic was trying really hard not to laugh and Lily had already given in to the laughs. Papyrus wasn't taking it as well… "WHY MUST YOU TORTURE MY LIFE WITH YOUR PUNS?!" he demanded as he began to shred a piece of paper.

"Just thought you deserved some **TEAR** able puns to start off your day!" Sans said in reply.

"SANS!"

"I'm finished!" Shadow yelled from the kitchen and he stepped out with a plate loaded with pancakes that were stacked up to the ceiling. Everyone's mouth watered as they stared at the plate.

"Papyrus hasn't made anything edible since before I started living here…," Lily commented.

"I have no idea why, but I had to chase out three dogs who were chewing on a bunch of bones underneath the oversized kitchen sink!" Shadow stated as he looked around for a place to put the pancakes.

"My tongue is clinging to the **ruff** of my mouth… You can just put those on the **maple** -er- table!" Sans answered.

Papyrus had enough of the puns and well… "SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANSSSSSSS!"

"Welp, it sounds like someone's funny bone is broken…," Sans stated.

"I've heard quite enough from you Sans…"

"You got an EARful huh? Is it getting under your SKIN?!" demanded Sans nudging his brother playfully.

"Sans?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"One more pun and you'll have **a really bad time**."

"I'll get a really bad ' **thyme'** alright! Besides, that's MY line!"

"GRRRRRRRRRRRR…"

"Um… S-Sorry… I didn't…"

 **One really bad thyme later! ^-^;**

"Well, now! Who's ready for pancakes?" asked Papyrus as he he finally cooled off from all of the puns.

Sans was nowhere to be found and the house was destroyed. The pancakes had fallen off the table and were now squished all over the floor. Shadow was on his knees and weeping over his pancakes.

"I guess, instead of flapjacks, they're **FLAT** jacks!" Sonic said with a grin.

Papyrus glared over at Sonic. "Don't tell me that I'll have to PUNish you too!"

Everybody bursts out laughing. Even Papyrus! As they cleaned up the house, they finally found Sans crushed under the stairs. He laughed weakly. "Guess the stairs were UP to something after all…" Sans helped to fix the rest of the house and the three hedgehogs burst out of the house and began to frolic through the streets and talk to people.

Shadow looked over to Sonic. "Do you get the sneaky suspicion that someone is following us?"

Sonic thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, yeah! What do you suppose it's all about?"

"Turn around and you should know."

"AH!" yelled Sonic and Shadow in sync. They sighed with relief when they saw it was just Sans.

"You scared me out of my fur!" yelled Sonic.

"Well, isn't that what you're supposed to do when you meet a skeleton on the street? Seriously though, we have to talk about somethin'. Lily too. How 'bout you join me at Grillby's for brunch?" asked Sans.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. Sans said that he'd explain everything the day before. Was this when he was going to explain? They nodded and found Lily. Once she got what was going on, they followed Sans to Grillby's and went inside. Everyone greeted Sans with happy smiles and he told them a couple of jokes. Once they reached the counter, he went serious.

"So, what is it that you want? I hate to have a serious conversation on an empty stomach," Sans told them.

"I'll have a bagel!" Lily said. She paused. "Two bagels."

"I'll have a chili dog!" Sonic answered.

"Eh. A burger," Shadow told him with a shrug.

Sans eyed Shadow suspiciously and then turned to Grillby to tell him what they wanted. Sonic hardly noticed that Grillby was a flaming guy with glasses. He had saw the way Sans looked at Shadow. Shadz was right. There was something odd going on between them. It felt like an invisible form of tension. He still couldn't quite put his finger on it. Grillby returned with their food and a bottle of ketchup. Sans picked up the bottle of ketchup and popped it open. He began to actually drink out of the ketchup bottle. Sonic and Shadow had never seen someone chug a condiment before. Sans slammed the ketchup bottle back down on the table and his eyes went dark.

"So, I'm sure you can see that I'm back to square one right? We were free with the humans for a couple of years before they sent us away to this world where Shadow sealed us away… Don't think I don't remember. I saw this coming when we left Mt. Ebbot. It'll be exactly the same this time too if I see correctly. It's likely I'll be lucky, but I still see many timelines where you…," Sans stopped as he looked to Shadow and Lily.

"You remember?! How can you remember? The chaos emeralds erased the memories of all of the monsters in the Underground! Toriel told us that!" Sonic exclaimed.

"She's magic and royalty. I guess that it makes sense that she'd remember. However, I'm a little more than magic. I have these powers that I can't really stop. Papyrus doesn't know anything about my power. I can see all the timelines. Anything that can happen, I can see what will come out of it. I can remember everything after every reset. Those chaos emeralds you spoke of caused the reset. That's why nobody other than a select few can remember," Sans explained.

Lily was confused. "How come you never told me?! I knew nothing about any of this! This happened all before only with a human? How did these chaos emeralds cause a reset? What is a reset?! What's going on?!"

Sans sighed. "Nobody else other than Toriel and I can even remember Frisk. Frisk turned out to be my best friend… My best enemy too in some timelines… I never told anyone because I knew that the monsters in the Underground would try to take advantage of my powers. I didn't want anyone to try to take me from my brother again to be part of some dumb science experiment again! I know what it's like to be in that situation all too well… I just want to be a normal guy like everybody else, but because of these powers, I can't! That's why I don't tell anybody about it."

What do you mean by being taken away from your brother and being part of a science experiment _again_?" asked Lily.

Sans didn't answer. His eyes finally returned to normal and he haved a heavy sigh. He looked to Shadow. "There is a happy ending down the road for all of us, but there is one person standing in our way. You, Shadow."

Shadow sat up straight and flattened his ears. "Why me?! I haven't tried to kill anyone! Why would I be the one to stand between us and our happy ending?!"

"She got to you. Once she gets to you, it's hard to fight her. Before you know it… I… I was listening in on your conversation with Sonic last night. It made no sense to me. In more than one timeline, you become a relentless killer. I end up facing you and I'm forced to kill you over and over. That's why it didn't makes sense. You specifically said that you're trying to be a good person, but I still don't see that future going away. She's already taken an interest in you."

"Who's _**she**_?" all three of them asked.

"I can't say her name. You'd best watch it. I'll never be that far behind you. We can become the best of friends or the greatest of enemies. The reset is only going to be necessary if you kill something or someone. I'm not going to wait in the Underground for some savior to get us out of here. Lily, she's going to try to get at you too. However, I think you can fight her off. You're tough. There's only one more thing to be discussed. The talking flower."

Sonic and Shadow froze. Flowey? Sans remembered it too? "F-Flowey?"

"So you two have heard about the talking yellow flower? You must know how dangerous it is. It hides among the echo flowers and sometimes my bro comes back saying how he was talking to a flower who gave him encouragement, friendliness, predictions. I've seen what that thing can do and it's not pleasant. When you go to the Waterfall, I warn you. Don't trust the echo flowers," Sans warned.

The three hedgehogs trembled. They didn't know that Sans could be so intense. He stood to his feet and seemed to be back to his normal self. Nobody else in the building even knew what they had said. Sans simply grinned as usual and told Grillby to put the bill for everyone on his tab. He turned back to the three hedgehogs. "Listen, don't take me too seriously. I don't want you to view me any different than the way you did this morning. I just want you three to be careful. By the way, the way, when you try to leave, Papyrus will challenge you to a fight. Don't worry. Lily has the answer to battling him. HURT HIM AT ALL AND I'LL KILL YOU. Welp, I'll be seeing ya. Bone voyage!"

Sonic looked to Shadow who looked to Lily who looked to Sonic. They all wondered in their minds the same question. "Were they really strong enough to face everything Sans had told them about? Did they really have the strength? What if they didn't? Then, there was Shadow. He had never really felt terror. However, the thought of being possessed to only think about killing reminded him of something. His past thirst for human blood because of how they had killed his friend Maria. Will that thirst come back? Was HE strong enough?


	7. Chapter 6 Bonetrousles and Undyne

Chapter 6 Bonetrousles and Undyne

"Sans said that we'd have to battle his brother. How are we supposed to get by Papyrus? He said that Lily knew," Sonic said as they walked out of the restaurant.

"I'm still kinda shaken up from… what Sans told me about… Her," Shadow answered.

"Yeah… It was a little freaky, but so long as you're able to fight it, you shouldn't be possessed. You are a pretty tough guy!" Sonic said nudging Shadow to give him encouragement.

"Physically, yes. Every other way… I'd fall apart…"

"YEAH, TALKING LIKE THAT IS MAKING YOU FALL APART. C'mon! Let's go explore some new place! Go beyond the boundaries! See what the world has to offer!" Sonic yelled as he pointed to the sky.

"I'm with Sonic," Lily agreed.

Shadow pulled himself together enough to nod and continue on with them. They left the cute town of Snowdin (after saving) and just as they were outside of the town, someone stepped in front of them. Papyrus.

"Well, look who's trying to leave town… Didn't even care to say goodbye? That's kind of… insulting," Papyrus told them without a hint of anger. He was more disappointed than angry.

Sonic immediately felt the guilt. "Um… We didn't mean to! We just forgot! Besides, we were going to come back!" Sonic replied.

"Well, at least I caught you before you left. However, before you even dare try to leave, I want to tell you that the one day you stayed at my wonderful house has been… the most fun I've had in a while! Shadow is a magnificent cook, Lily is a glorious friend, and Sonic is always believing in others. I respect all of those things in you. You three meet all of my standards. I suppose that it's a bit much to ask, but can we possibly be… Wait. I can't be doing this! I'm supposed to deliver you to Undyne! I can't be your friends!" Papyrus said to himself.

"Um… You could become our friends and then deliver us to Undyne?" asked Sonic with a shrug. Shadow rolled his eyes to that idea.

"Undyne wants to kill us you, idiot!" Shadow snapped.

"Oh yeah…"

"Well, then there's only one way to settle this. We'll settle this with a battle!" Papyrus announced as he summoned a bone to his hand. He launched it towards Lily who sidestepped without a problem. The bone returned to his hand and Papyrus readied for a much more powerful attack. Lily sighed. She stepped forward to make her move.

When Sonic and Shadow figured out what Sans meant, they first laughed. Then, their jaws were left dropped. Sonic couldn't take his eyes off of her and Shadow had to jump up a tree just to escape from her ability. Of course, because it worked so good on the hedgehogs, it worked on Papyrus.

"F-flirting?! S-so! You finally reveal your ultimate feelings!" Papyrus stated as he tried to keep up battling and not be infatuated.

Lily continued to flirt, but she didn't get anywhere from it. Papyrus continued his attack, but he was still thinking about what Lily was telling him. "No! L-let's date later!"

Lily put her hands up to show that she wasn't going to fight. Papyrus sighed with disappointment. "So you won't fight… I guess that was to be expected from you! Well, let's see how you deal with my **blue attack**!" he yelled as a bunch of blue bones flew at her. She didn't move. The bones flew right through her.

Sonic was taking notes. Lily was really good at the art of the battle without fighting. He wrote down everything. From how he shouldn't move for blue attacks to how to flirt if usable in the specific situation. He went back to looking at the fight. Lily continued to spare and dodge with amazing speed.

Suddenly, out of nowhere a blue force came down upon Lily. Her soul turned blue and she found herself being mysteriously drawn to the bones that Papyrus was launching at her. She got hit by a small bone that was behind her that knocked her over. Papyrus laughed. "You're blue now. That's my attack."

Lily stared around in confusion. She figured out a way to dodge, but it was a lot harder. She'd always be drawn towards the bones so she'd have to jump over them when they came after her and her soul. Sonic watched in amazement as she dodged and refused to fight back.

No matter how hard Papyrus fought, he was still thinking about the date. He couldn't really stop thinking about it. He had never been on a date before. No one had ever flirted with him. Was he making a big mistake in fighting them?

"N-no! I can't give in to you! I shall unleash my special attack on you!" Papyrus announced.

One move later…

"I tell you, I will use that special attack!"

One move later…

"Any minute now, and I'll use that special attack!"

One move later!

"Alright, it's time that I show you my special attack! Behold!" Papyrus announced as he pointed towards Lily. Nothing happened. Papyrus looked next to him to see that his special attack was being chewed on by a dog. "You stupid mutt! That's my attack! My special one, too! Get back here with my attack!" The dog had already left with the bone. Papyrus and Lily simply stood there awkwardly.

"Um… I'll just have to use one of my super cool regular attacks… Prepare for a completely normal attack," Papyrus said now a little annoyed.

Lily jumped over his bones that were writing out words. Cool. Dude. Other words that I can't quite remember.

Finally, Papyrus sighed to himself. He wasn't getting anywhere. He threw a bone to the ground. His special attack had been stolen by a dog, his blue attacks failed, his cool regular attack didn't even do anything to Lily, and she had her mind set on flirting with him! He looked back to her. "Well, it seems that I have failed to capture you. Undyne sure won't be happy with that. Well, because I, the Great Papyrus, is so compassionate to you as to not have you suffer the wrath of my attacks, I shall spare you. However, what shall I tell Undyne?! What should I do?!"

Lily smiled to herself. "You know, why don't we be friends? I think that you're a pretty cool guy. Maybe we could hang later!" she said.

Papyrus thought about it. In two seconds he was back to his normal cheery self. "Y-You want to be my friend?! Wowie! Nobody's ever asked me that before! My first real friend other than Undyne! I should go tell Sans about this! Oh! If you want, you can swing by later to have that date!" Papyrus chirped. He was walking on air. Literally. He flew right over her and back to his house. Shadow climbed down from his tree and Sonic was staring at Papyrus in wonderment. He didn't even know skeletons could fly…

"Well, that was kind of unexpected… I guess… I have a date tonight…," Lily said as she stared back towards Snowdin with an unreadable expression. Sonic wasn't sure if he should be worried or terrified.

Shadow's mind wandered. It wandered back to their conversation with Sans. What would he have done in this situation? He knew he couldn't flirt with Papyrus. What would he have done? Then, his mind wandered to the sounds of water just beyond them. Something was there just beyond Snowdin. Something that made him feel exposed. To what? To Her? What was in Snowdin that wasn't there?

The three hedgehogs decided that they would return to Snowdin to rest up before leaving to go to Waterfall. Lily did end up having that date with Papyrus… Sorry, but I'm not going to write that out. You can just date him yourself in the game! Okay, after Lily got Papyrus' phone number, they all decided to leave. With one final goodbye to the people of Snowdin and the skeleton bros, they were off. Their journey had only just got more serious…

They only just stepped outside of town when they started walking through a patch of tall grass. Everything was dark because the night was now upon them. As they walked through the tall grass, they heard a familiar voice just outside of the grass. Sonic stopped and his ears twitched. He turned towards the voice.

"Papyrus?"

With the mention of Papyrus, Lily and Shadow also stopped. they turned to Sonic who was listening carefully to what he was hearing. There was another voice too, but he couldn't make out what the other voice was saying. However, because Papyrus is so loud, he could hear him perfectly. Shadow and Lily figured out what he was doing and started listening to the conversation as well.

"Papyrus reporting in! I have brought more news concerning the three hedgehogs!"

(The other being replies).

"Of course! I found two more! Actually, the hedgehog I found, found the other two! Now there's one female and two males."

(The being replies).

"Huh? Did I fight them? Of course, I did! I did valiantly!"

(The being replies).

"Did I capture them? Do you want me to be completely truthful…?"

(The being gives a much louder response).

"I-I'm sorry, Undyne! H-Hey, I know where they are and what they look like! Also, if I really have to, I'll get my older brother Sans to track them down!"

(The being quiets down and replies).

"Um… One's a blue male hedgehog with a quirky, perky, and friendly personality by the name of Sonic. The other male hedgehog is a black hedgehog with crimson stripes running through his hair. He has red eyes, hover shoes, and rings on his wrists by the name of Shadow. The female hedgehog looks like a female version of Sonic only wears a skirt and short shirt and a headband. Her name is Lily. They are heading into the Waterfall area now."

(The being laughs).

"What do you mean that you're going to take their souls?! We don't have to kill them! They may end up being your-"

(The being interrupts).

"...I… understand, Undyne. I'll help you in any way I can…," Papyrus said as he left.

Sonic, Shadow, and Lily shuddered. So this was the mysterious friend of Papyrus' who wanted them dead. Lily restrained herself from summoning some magical force to defend herself with. Sonic's curiosity got the best of him. He had to see what Undyne looked like. He snuck through the grass and peeped through the stems. He saw a knight in shining armor that filled him with fear. The eye of the knight seemed to glow and the person within the armor had a long, red ponytail coming out of the opposite end of the helmet. The person stood a few inches shorter than Toriel and looked very terrifying. Sonic sucked in a gasp and instantly regretted it.

"Huh?! Who's there?!" demanded Undyne with a female voice. The knight's armor came to life and walked towards the grass with an electric spear in hand. Sonic dove into the grass and jumped onto Shadow and Lily to keep them down. He silently shushed them.

Undyne came closer to the grass. Her eyes could clearly detect the presence of the three hedgehogs. However, instead of checking, she simply took a few steps backward into a dark shadow and disappeared into the night. Her glowing eye was all that they could see before that too, disappeared.

Sonic stood still for a few more seconds and stood back up. He checked to see if the coast was clear and then signaled Shadow and Lily when he couldn't find anyone. They got out the tall grass and got into a huddle.

"That was freaky! So, that's Undyne…," Lily commented on the situation.

Shadow sighed. "I knew that if Papyrus was going to treat you like a dog because of this person, she was a force to be reckoned with. Well, what now?"

Sonic looked towards the Waterfall Area. He slowly exhaled to calm his pounding heart. "We'll keep going. If we stay at Snowdin, Undyne will find us. If we stay here, Undyne will find us. If we keep going, we at least, have a chance of not getting captured. That's my logic. Everyone agree?"

Shadow and Lily both nod. Sonic crosses his arms. "Well, let's go."

Right as they were about to keep going a small, yellow dinosaur kid hopped out of the tall grass and ran around them excitedly. Shadow couldn't help but notice that the dinosaur didn't have any arms and was tempted to tip him over just to see how the dinosaur kid would do to get back up.

The yellow dinosaur smiled to them. "Wow! Did you see the way Undyne was staring at you! Man, that was AWESOME! C'mon! Let's go catch up with her to see her beat up some bad guys!" he said as he ran off. The dino kid fell on the ground and his face kind of stuck to the ground. He used his face to sort of help him get back to his feet. He then ran on ahead of them.

"Aww… That poor, sticky dino kid… He doesn't have any arms!" Lily said. Shadow merely laughed at that quote.

"Okay… let's keep moving…," Sonic stated.

The three hedgehogs strolled into Waterfall. They gazed around at the scenery. Voices were all around them and it nearly drove Shadow mad. They all knew that it was the flowers.

"There are blue flowers… Everywhere… Are these those echo flowers that Sans told us about? They whisper the last things they heard. Cool!" Sonic stated as he looked at one.

"They whisper the last things they heard. Cool!" it repeated.

"Guys, I want to hear what the flowers are repeating besides us. Be as quiet as possible…," Lily told them.

The eerie blue glow and the sound of falling water surrounded them. Water sausages sprouted from the water and the ground was a dark black. It was creepy and fascinating at the same time.

The flowers whispered the hopes and dreams of others who had passed through in hopes of wishing on the glowing rocks of the Wishing Cave. Sonic nearly cried when he heard all of the dreams that were whispered. Everyone wanted the same things. They all wanted to see the light of day, they all wanted to climb out of the mountain, they all wanted to leave the terrible prison that Shadow had bestowed upon them. Lily was equally emotional. Shadow didn't want to listen to any of them. It just made him feel worse about the whole situation.

After they walked for a little bit, They were just outside of the Wishing Cave. Shadow was getting out his phone to call Papyrus. He saw Toriel's number right beneath the number of Papyrus. Shadow dialed Toriel's number and waited to see if she would pick up. Nobody answered. He sighed and put away the phone. He looked behind him to see a yellow petal of a flower disappearing into the ground. Shadow raced over to the hole and looked at the ground. Flowey was gone. He saw the echo flower that stood just beside him. It whispered with Flowey's ominous voice, "She's just going to find another hedgehog… Do you really think that she even still remembers or cares about you?"

Shadow could feel something try to grab onto his soul. He stood up from the ground and stepped on the echo flower. He smashed the flower to pieces and spat on the remains.

"She won't get me. You can't bring me down. I'll fight you with everything I have. I will not give into your evil ways… Maria wouldn't approve, after all," Shadow hissed at the crushed flower. He turned and ran after Sonic and Lily who were just entering the cave. Sonic turned to Shadow.

"Hey Shadz, I just- Whoa… What's wrong?" asked Sonic as he peered at Shadow's face.

"What?!" demanded Shadow.

"Your eyes! Is it just me, or do they look like they've changed to a darker shade of red?" asked Sonic.

"It must be the light in here… Believe me. The light makes you look purple!" Shadow answered trying not to act too suspicious.

"Huh. I guess you're right! Well, come on!" Sonic said as he ran into the cave.

Shadow looked at his reflection in the water. He realized that his eyes were changing back to normal. He looked back to the echo flower. It was nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground…


	8. Chapter 7 Dummies and Spears

Chapter 7 Dummies and Spears

"So, this is the Wishing Cave? It's so cool! The glowing rocks on the ceiling! They look exactly like the actual stars almost!" Lily said as she looked at the twinkling stones. Sonic nodded in agreement.

Shadow had caught up to them and the echo flower still haunted him in his mind. However, he knew that by thinking about it, he was simply inviting negative thoughts. The Wishing Cave did look like the night sky. It put him at ease.

As they made their way through the darkness, they could hear the echo flowers repeating more hopes and more wishes. One echo flower stood out more than the others. It sat in the middle of the road and spoke a little louder than the rest. The voice was familiar. A good kind of familiar.

"Check the wall," it told them in a deep, male voice. They all heard the voice before. Lily was about to say who she thought it was, but it got the better of her.

"Check the wall. What wall?" asked Sonic as he looked around.

"Maybe this dead end wall over here? It really looks like there should be a door over here," Shadow stated as he pointed to the wall. They all approached the wall and touched the hard rock. The rock wall then formed a door. Sonic nodded to Shadow and they proceeded.

They came to a room full of lit up signs. As they each read the signs, they realized that it was the story of how they were sealed underground by the humans. Sonic suddenly realized that it wasn't completely true NOW because Shadow had sealed them all underground with the chaos emeralds. However, he was sure that the other parts were true. As he looked at one of the signs, one of them had a picture of a bizarre monster on the front of it. Something about it disturbed him. He moved on after looking at the picture for a long while.

The next room was dark and was only lit by the little light that came from behind them that caused for long shadows to stretch across the ground. There was something unsettling about this. The Waterfall was an unsettling place in general. They felt like they were being watched…

 _CRASH!_

A blue, electrical spear pierced the ground just in front of them! Sonic and Lily nearly screamed and Shadow jumped. Sonic saw Undyne little ways away lobbing spears in their directions. They began to run.

"Sonic, why didn't you warn us about the electrical spears! You saw that she had one! Why didn't you say something?!" demanded Lily as she ran.

"Maybe I thought it wasn't important!" Sonic yelled in reply.

"Well, it was!" Shadow retorted.

 _Crash! Crash! POW!_

They could see more tall grass just ahead of them. Sonic hoped and prayed that the tall grass would hide them just as well as last time. He grabbed onto the wrists of Shadow and Lily and to the grass they dove once again.

Undyne came storming through the grass and searched around. She was now standing right in front of them and she grabbed down on someone! She pulled up the being who she had caught…

A grinning dinosaur kid was in her hand. She stopped for an awkward second and slowly put Dino Kid back into the grass. She retreated back the way she had come. The three hedgehogs sighed to themselves.

They walked out of the tall grass and Dino Kid was coming out with them. He jumped excitedly. "Did you see that?! Undyne just-TOUCHED ME! I'm never going to wash my face ever again! Man! You three must be very unlucky. Imagine what would have happened if you were just a little bit to the left… Let's go! We can't let Undyne get away from us!" With that, Dino Kid ran off leaving the three hedgehogs to wonder what just happened.

They found a save station in the next room. After saving and continuing, they found Sans standing next to a telescope. He looked asleep for a moment but then opened his eyes when the hedgehogs approached. He closed them again as if he was hardly interested. Lily knew he had something up his sleeve. She didn't even know how he got there. He must've known that they would get there eventually.

"Huh. I wonder what Sans wants," Sonic commented.

"You know, I'm thinking about getting a job with a telescope company. You three wanna be my first customers? It's free," Sans explained. He was obviously hiding something. He was avoiding eye contact with Shadow and was sort of messing with something in his pocket. Lily was too curious to resist.

"Well, I thought that you already have two jobs? The more the, uh, merrier…, maybe…? I'll be the first to try your telescope, though!" she said trying not to phrase the sentence wrong.

Sans side stepped and she looked through it. She let out a long, annoyed sigh and stood up. She turned and looked to Sans. Sans put pink paint on the eye lense making her eye appear pink! She growled at Sans who burst into laughter.

"You're evil sometimes! EVIL!" Lily yelled at Sans. She scowled at Sonic and Shadow who were also trying their best not to laugh.

"Oh? Are you not satisfied? It's ok. I'll give you a full refund!" Sans told her with a wink. However, there was no money to pay back because it was free! Everybody was laughing now except for Lily. She continued to look at Sans with a really ticked off look on her face.

"Let's just keep moving…"

They walked a lot further and read more signs. There were more echo flowers which only freaked out Shadow even more. They ran into a guy named Unionsan and got attacked by Undyne again! She explained to them how they only needed three more animal souls before they could reach the surface. She bashed the ground out from under them and they were sent falling! Down… down… down…

 _CRASH!_

"Oh man… Shadow, Lily, are you two okay?" asked Sonic as he sat up from the long fall. A bunch of yellow flowers broke his fall. He sighed with relief. Lily and Shadow nod to answer his question.

"Yeah, we're fine. However, where are we? What is this place?" asked Shadow as he looked around at all the trash.

"Looks like a trash dump," Lily answered as she glanced around.

They found another save point and saved before they kept going. There was a bunch of trash lying around. CDs for an anime…, a bike…, and there was also a dummy! A training dummy! Sonic walked up to it. He didn't touch the dummy. Lily just walked past it without even acknowledging it. Shadow punched the training dummy. He felt… Shadow kept on walking as he tried not to think about the way he felt. Right as they were about to leave the trash dump, though…

The dummy jumped in front of them with an angry expression on its face. It was a mad dummy! Sonic, Shadow, and Lily all shouted in unison.

"You foolish brats! The blue hedgehog just thought he could stare me down to annoy me! The little girl just thought she could just completely ignore me, did she?! Then, there's you! You, black hedgehog, you punched me without considering the possibility that you might be hurting someone. I don't know what you think, but you are a very hurtful person!" the mad dummy screamed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Chill for a minute! Whatever we did to offend you, we're sorry for doing it! We just want to pass safely and leave the trash dump to reach the exit to the Underground and hopefully, break the barrier!" Sonic explained.

"Wait a second… You're that hedgehog from the ruins! My cousin was the dummy from the ruins and you just chattered on and on just boring my poor cousin to death with your nonsense! Do you know how long it took for him to become corporeal?! Well, you all don't deserve to live after what you did to my cousin!" screamed the mad dummy. The mad dummy turned into a bright red and they went into battle mode.

They tried to talk and Shadow once tried to attack, but nothing worked. The dummy was incorporeal and wouldn't listen to their words. It attacked them with its magical attacks and Lily got an idea! She whispered to Sonic who nodded.

"Hey you DUMMY, come get me if you can!" Sonic yelled. The dummy glared at the hedgehog and launched a dozen of magical attacks at Sonic. Sonic ran around in a circle and sent them soaring towards the mad dummy! The dummy couldn't get away in time! The attacks hit the dummy and he yelled in pain.

"YOU! GrRrRrRr… These magical attacks are just useless! USELESS! I'll just attack you with more advanced attacks!" the mad dummy screamed.

Shadow did the exact same thing Sonic did and it worked again! The attacks hit the mad dummy and the dummy was hopping around and screaming insults towards them. Lily was feeling a little sorry for it because some of its stuffing was coming out.

"MAN! THESE ARE WORSE THAN THE LAST ATTACKS! I'll just use knives!" yelled the dummy as it threw a knife towards Shadow who sidestepped before it hit him. The knife fell to the ground. The mad dummy stopped. "I'm out of knives… WELL, I DON'T NEED KNIVES! ALL YOU FOOLISH PEOPLE HAD BETTER DIE THIS INSTANT SO I CAN TAKE YOUR SOULS TO CROSS THE BARRIER AND TO AVENGE MY COUSIN!" screamed the dummy.

Sonic, Shadow, and Lily were about to face another attack from the mad dummy when something interesting happened. It started raining. ACID rain. It rained all over the dummy. The mad dummy yelled and looked up to see Napstablook raining all over it.

"ACID RAIN!? AHHHH! Oh, whatever! I'm outta here!" yelled the dummy as it ran away.

Sonic waved to his friend Napstablook. "Hey, Napstablook! How's it going?!"

"Oh… I'm terribly sorry for making him go away… You looked like the four of you were having fun, too… Oh…," wept Napstablook as he sort of faded away. He reappeared a few feet away and looked back to them. "Oh, my house is just up ahead if you wanna come visit… Then again… You don't have to… It was just a friendly suggestion… Uh- Nevermind…" Napstablook then disappeared.

"Wait!" called Lily as she reached her hand out, but the ghost was already gone. She sighed and looked to Sonic and Shadow. "Let's go visit. He looks like he could use a pick-me-up."

Sonic and Shadow nodded in agreement as they made their way out of the trash dump. They came to a clearing that had five ways to go. One way headed to the little bird that would carry them over a disproportionately small gap, one to a fish house, one to Napstablook's house, one to continue forward, and one to Napstablook's family business.

The three hedgehogs visited with Napstablook and listened to his… unique soundtracks. They tried to get snacks, but there were only ghost snacks. They also tried the snail race. Somehow, Sonic would always turn his snail into a flaming inferno by encouraging it too much! Lily would always win and Shadow would lose because he wouldn't encourage it at all. Napstablook still made money, though! His mood seemed to have improved a bit!

After hanging out with Napstablook for a bit, they finally said their goodbyes and left to continue forward. There were many dark rooms ahead and they had to light these little crystals to see where they were going. While they were wandering around in the dark, they stumbled across a tiny village that was full of… cats? I'm sorry, what are they again?

"hOI! I'm Tem! Tem da Temmie! Dis is Tem Village! Evewy Tem say hOI!" announced a Temmie to its buds. The entire village turned to the three hedgehogs.

"hOI!" all of the Tem screamed all at once. It was chaos after that.

"What the heck is this place?" asked Shadow as he looked around.

"I have no idea…," Sonic replied as a Temmie tried to climb up his leg to say hOI. Sonic shook it off and it began to cry. Sonic instantly picked it back up again and it began to start babbling about itself and all of its friends with a huge grin.

Sonic turned around and started backing out slowly. However, a bunch of Temmie with evil grins stood in his way.

"Meanie hedhog stay an pay 4 colleg or die!" they all yelled.

Sonic instantly got out his wallet and turned it upside down. The Temmie gathered around the one gold coin that fell from it and Sonic laughed awkwardly. "We're broke."

The Temmie then began to cry in unison. While the Temmie were distracted, Sonic grabbed onto Lily and Shadow and they ran away to safety. They were never going to come back…

Thankfully, nobody was harmed after they left the horrible Temmie Village. They looked back and sighed. After agreeing to never go back to the horrible place, they continued. Dino Kid walked up to them again. He wasn't grinning as much as he was the last time they saw him.

"Yo, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I wanna ask you three something… Man, I've never had to ask anyone this before… Are you three hedgehogs from the outside?" asked Dino Kid curiously.

The three hedgehogs nod.

"Wow! I knew it! Well, I know it now, I mean… Undyne told me to stay away from the hedgehogs, so, um…, does that make us enemies or something?" asked Dino Kid.

"We don't have to be! We could be friends! I don't really wanna be your enemy," Sonic said to the Dino Kid.

"R-Really? Gee…, I was going to ask if you could insult me so I could have a reason to hate you, but I guess we'll just have to settle with being friends!" Dino Kid answered enthusiastically.

Sonic and Lily both grinned. However, their happy meeting was cut short when Undyne approached them. Dino Kid gasped and ran towards Undyne excitedly.

"Undyne! Look! I made friends with the hedgehogs! I knew that they weren't me- AH!" yelled Dino Kid as he slipped and fell onto a mud slide. He was slowly falling down and couldn't pull himself up! He didn't have any arms! Sonic gasped and Undyne slowly approached. She was obviously cautious of Sonic.

Rather than doing nothing, Sonic ran up to Dino Kid. He helped him back onto solid ground and Dino Kid sighed with relief. Then, the young monster turned towards Undyne boldly. "If you plan on attacking my friend, you'll have to get through me!"

Undyne took a surprised step back. She looked around and then retreated away back the way she came unable to do anything. Dino Kid sighed and turned back to Sonic, Shadow, and Lily.

"She's gone… My parents must be really worried about me. How about we talk later! It was nice meeting you all!" Dino Kid said as he began to scurry away. Sonic and Lily waved. Shadow just stood and watched the sticky dinosaur run away. He still wanted to tip him over just to laugh at the fact that he had no arms.

Sonic turned to Lily and Shadow. "I can see an orangish glow coming from over there! I think that's the exit of the cave!" He pointed to the large door that leads to the next room.

"Let's go. We need to get out of Waterfall. Undyne will still catch us if we stay here too long," Shadow told Sonic.

"Right! C'mon guys!" Sonic cheered as he pointed to the light.

They walked through the door and they saw that Undyne had already beaten them to it. She was standing heroically on top of a giant mountain. She looked down upon the three hedgehogs.

"Four… That's how many souls we have… We just need three more before we can break open the barrier… Just like everyone else who passes through here, I'll tell you our tragic story…," Undyne told them. She stopped. She growled to the world. "WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU THAT STORY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE?! PREPARE YOURSELF!" she yelled as she yanked off her helmet.

"Wait a minute…," Shadow said.

"She's a-?!" Lily continued.

"She's a fish lady?!" finished Sonic trying not to laugh.

"SHUT UP HEDGEHOGS! Come forward when you are ready to battle me!" screamed Undyne as she raised a spear at them.

Sonic looked over and saw a save point. The three of them touched it and then they continued. As the three of them stepped forward, Undyne's grin only became bigger. She jumped down from the mountain and landed in front of them.

"That's right! No more running away! Prepare to DIE!" she howled as they went into battle mode.

She threw a spear at them and Shadow caught it. She grinned. "Use that to defend yourselves. You must learn that in order to accomplish the most difficult challenges, you need to face danger head on!" she yelled as she threw three spears at them. Shadow expertly used the spear as a shield and reflect the spears. Sonic began to panic.

"What do we do?! What do we do?! Is there a way to stop her?!" he demanded.

"You know, I know this gal named Zaira. She acts almost exactly like Undyne. I've battled her once before and I know the only way to beat her!" Shadow said.

"Wait… You know how to stop her?" asked Lily with amazement.

"Well, from the way I see it, the only way to beat her is to…," Shadow threw his spear on the ground and yelled, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Sonic and Lily didn't wait for a moment. They fled after Shadow with Undyne hard on their tails. She was yelling at them and they didn't care. They were running so fast that they hardly realized that their phone was ringing. Shadow picked it up. "Yes?"

Undyne stopped. "Wait, who's that?"

"It's Papyrus," Shadow answered.

"Hello, Shadow! I was just thinking that you, Sonic, and Lily should totally get together with Undyne sometime! I'm sure that the four of you can become friends! It's settled then! All of you shall report to her house as soon as you're able! Okay! That was all! Bye!" Papyrus finished.

"Hey Undyne, are you open for this afternoon?" asked Shadow.

"WHY DO YOU CARE?!" she demanded.

"I'll take that as a yes. Where were we? Oh, yeah. RUUUUUUUN!"

Sonic, Lily, and Shadow continued to run. They ran past a sign that read: Welcome to Hotland! They raced into a place that looked like it was inside of a volcano. It was smoldering hot! Undyne began to slow down. They ran past Sans who was at one of his hotdog stands, sleeping. Undyne stopped in front of it and looked like she was going to yell for him to wake up, but decided it wasn't worth it.

They ran across a long bridge that sat above a large pit of lava. Once on the other side, they watched Undyne stumble her way across the bridge. She looked a little dried out… She growled at the hedgehogs. "Armor… So hot… Can't… give up… Not yet…," she said before collapsing on the ground and landing on her face.

"Oh-no!" Sonic yelled as he raced over to her. Her scales were dry… Lily turned around and saw a water cooler. She ran over to it and grabbed a cup of water. She poured the water onto Undyne's scales and Undyne began to recover as she cooled off.

"Undyne! Are you okay?" asked Lily.

The warrior stumbled to her feet and looked at Lily and Sonic who were looking up at her with worried eyes.

"I-I'm… fine…," Undyne said. She turned around and walked away not responding when they begged her to come back. She was gone and no longer in pursuit of them.

Sonic turned and wondered why Shadow hadn't done anything to try to help Undyne. He saw Shadow emptying the water cooler and making a huge puddle on the ground. He grinned when he finally emptied out the whole thing. Was there something wrong with Shadow or was he slowly becoming more… evil?


	9. Chapter 8 BESTIES!

Chapter 8 BESTIES!

"So, I'm going to guess that this is Hotland. Also, what's Shadow doing?" asked Lily as she looked over to Shadow who was splashing around in the large puddle he made.

"He's making a public swimming area is what he's doing…," Sonic answered with a half annoyed look on his face. He walked over to Shadow and grabbed him by the ear. With all of his force, he dragged Shadow out of the puddle.

"HEY! I had made that and I should be able to splash around in it if I want!" shouted Shadow in Sonic's face.

Sonic turned to Lily. "One sec!" He turned back to Shadow.

 _THWACK! Bring!_

Sonic whacked the rings out of Shadow and they were bouncing everywhere. Shadow grabbed onto about ten of his rings and then took a deep breath. "Sorry… I needed that. In Waterfall, I wasn't exactly feeling like myself and I was… sorta losing control… Yeah…"

"Oh… That's why you punched the dummy, and didn't care to make friends with the Dino Kid, didn't encourage your snail, didn't help Undyne, and… all in all, did hardly anything…," Lily stated as she recalled all the things that Shadow did in Waterfall and all he didn't do…

"I-I don't know what's going on… Who's trying to steal my soul?! Why am I becoming heartless?!" demanded Shadow as he stared at his reflection in the huge puddle he made. His eyes were blood red and he cringed.

"Well, you set up a play date with Undyne while you weren't in control somehow. I think that you did still have a little bit of control. You didn't kill anyone!" Sonic said trying to look at the positive.

"Undyne! We should go back and check on her! You know that fish house we saw back at the crossroad in Waterfall? I think that's her house. Shadow, you wanna redeem yourself, right?" asked Lily.

"Yes!"

"Well, we'll send you to Undyne's house! However, because we want you to participate in making friends, we'll be sending you to her house alone. Don't worry, we'll be watching in case if anything goes wrong from the window!" Lily explained.

Sonic gasped like it was the greatest idea in the universe and Shadow got a sudden look of terror. Alone? At **Undyne's house** …? "G-Guys…? I don't think this is such a great idea…"

"Aw, come on Shadow! You know how to handle her. You got us away from her without getting us killed! Also, we saved her life. You might as well pay her a visit!" Sonic told Shadow with a nudge.

Shadow thought. "Alright… If you think it'll help, I'll do it. However, how do we go back there without backtracking?"

Lily pointed to a road just up ahead. "I heard from Sans and Papyrus that there's a river person who takes people to certain places in the Underground. I think they take people to around that spot in the Underground. Why don't we give it a shot?"

"Um… Okay?" Shadow answered.

They found the river person and they shoved Shadow onto the boat and waved as he drifted away. The river person sang song songs as they drifted down the stream back towards Undyne's house. She was there at their destination in mere seconds. Shadow stepped off of the boat and looked back to the river person. "I'll be back after I meet with my friend. That is, if I come back at all…"

"Very well then. I shall await your return."

As Shadow strolled out into the clearing and took the path to Undyne's house, he saw Papyrus waving to him just on her front door step. Shadow was relieved to know that he wasn't making this trip alone. Undyne won't hurt him as long as Papyrus was there.

"Oh! Shadow! Thank goodness you're here! I'm glad you came in a timely manner! Behold! Undyne's house!" Papyrus announced as he pointed to the giant fish house. Shadow stared up at the house with a large question mark hanging over his head. The last time he was here, nobody was home. Well, it was Undyne's house after all.

"Well, I may have a tough time becoming her friend considering that I'm a hedgehog and she kinda wants to destroy all hedgehogs and animals…," Shadow explained.

"Oh, nonsense! All you have to do is give her one of these!" Papyrus replied as he held up a large bone. Shadow tilted his head at the gift. "Is that a… bone? I don't think that Undyne, being a fish lady, would like something like that…"

Papyrus grinned and held it high. "Just trust me on this!" He then turned and knocked on the door.

The door opened as if the fish house had opened its mouth and Undyne stepped out of the rather odd door. She smiled a huge smile for Papyrus as if she were really psyched. She didn't see Shadow hiding behind Papyrus.

"Hey, Papyrus! You ready for your one-on-one, extra private, totally awesome training?!" she demanded.

"You bet! Also, I brought a friend with me this time!" Papyrus stated as he sidestepped and revealed that Shadow was with him. Every muscle in Undyne froze and she didn't move. Her grin was gone and she had a blank look on her face to replace it.

"Why don't. You two. Come in?" she asked adding unnecessary spaces in her sentence.

Papyrus excitedly looked around and then ran inside. Shadow followed more slowly. He looked around at the house. It looked like an ordinary house. The only thing that really disturbed him was the fact that there was a sword next to the table almost ten times bigger than him. Not… very… welcoming…

"Here Undyne!" Papyrus chirped as he handed her the bone present. "It's from the hedgehog!" he explained.

Undyne stared at it. She forced a grin. "Um… Thanks…? I'll just put this with all of the others…," Undyne said as she placed it into a drawer stuffed with bones that all look exactly like the one Undyne was just given.

"So, are we ready to start the training?" asked Undyne as she tried to ignore Shadow.

"Oh! Uh. One sec! I gotta go to the bathroom!" Papyrus said.

What happened next Shadow had to laugh at. Papyrus didn't leave out the door. He ran towards the wall and went crashing through the window! He landed on the ground outside the window in a handstand position and fell forward onto his feet again and went running away and dove into a nearby bush. There was a long awkward pause between Shadow and Undyne.

"So…, why are YOU here? Did you come all this way to rub your victory into my face?!" demanded Undyne as she leaned closer to Shadow and pointed to her face. Shadow couldn't help but look at her eyepatch and wonder how exactly she lost her eye. The thought lasted only a moment.

"Um… Not really. My two friends said that I needed to practice my "friend making skills". They forced me to come here to try to become your friend. I honestly have no idea what's wrong with them sometimes!" Shadow told Undyne.

"You mean those other two hogs? Heh. Based on what I know from them so far, I'd doubt that they would've done anything different. Well, you came to become my friend? I TOTALLY ACCEPT! Let's go frolic in the fields of friendship! NOT!" yelled Undyne as she imitated Sonic with a large, goofy grin on her face that showed that she was actually mocking them.

Shadow huffed. "I know that you don't wanna become my friend! That's why I didn't want to come here! I know that you wanna shove about a dozen spears down my throat right now!" Shadow said as he tried to ignore her restless hand as it fiddled with an electrical spear.

"You catch on fast for a wimp! Anyway, you know as much as I do that you've worn out your welcome! NOW GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Undyne screamed in Shadow's ear.

Papyrus came running back up to the window. He was really disappointed. "Yeesh, Undyne! I thought that you'd be able to get along with Shadow! After all, you two have a lot in common! He's the best chef in the world and he's actually torn apart my kitchen while trying to make pancakes! Oh well… What a shame… I thought that you'd be up to the challenge…," Papyrus sighed as he slowly walked away from the window.

Undyne's eyes went wide and she dropped the spear instantly. "DID YOU SAY CHALLENGE?! Undyne never backs down from a challenge! I can make friends with a loser like you any day!" Undyne yelled drawing him closer her with her strong fists. Shadow had the air squeezed out of his throat because of the way she was holding him. She brought her face closer to his face.

"Listen up, punk! I'm going to become your friend if it's the last thing that I do! In fact, I think that this is THE PERFECT REVENGE! I'll make you like me so much that you won't think of anyone else! We're going to be BESTIES!" she yelled. Her grin only became larger and she probably knew that she was making the dark hedgehog uncomfortable. She didn't care.

"Okay… I guess…," Shadow said as he tried not to offend her in any way.

Undyne finally backed away and lessened her grin to a friendly smile. "Feel free to look around! When you run out of things to see then maybe you could sit down at that table over there!" she explained.

Shadow first went to the window. Papyrus was nowhere to be seen. Shadow looked to Undyne who was shaking her head.

"Why would Papyrus jump out of my window like that…? HE USUALLY STICKS THE LANDING!" Undyne yelled with her ridiculously large grin back on her face.

Shadow smiled again and then made his way to the piano. He played a short six note piece and immediately lost interest afterwards. He went over to a door in the corner of the room and jiggled the handle. Locked.

"You bet it's locked, punk! No nerds allowed into my room! Well, maybe SOME nerds…," Undyne said as she seemed to recall someone. Shadow decided not to ask.

He made his way through her kitchen. He looked into a drawer. It was full of cooking tools… and dangerously sharp weapons! He immediately closed the drawer and Undyne was giggling at his reaction. Shadow then saw her refrigerator. He stuck his hand into the fridge and it was blazing hot inside!

"Oh, yeah! Dr. Alphys helped me reverse my fridge! I didn't like things cold, so I asked her if she could make it heat things up instead. HOT FRIDGE! BEST THING EVER!" Undyne yelled.

Shadow grinned the largest he had during their visit. They agreed on something for once! "I'm with you there!"

He looked at the sword in the corner. Undyne grinned and shook her head. "You probably know about the history of you hedgehogs and humans. I've heard that the humans would carry swords up to ten times their size! I was so amazed that I just had to get one myself!" Undyne said as she ran over to the humungous blue sword and began to swing it around everywhere. Shadow jumped back in alarm. She stopped at his sudden jumpiness and awkwardly smiled. "Yeah… Maybe I shouldn't do that with you here…"

Shadow finally had enough of looking around and sits down at the table. Undyne had finally put down her sword and looked towards her hot fridge. "So, uh, would you like something to drink?" she asked.

Shadow nodded and she went to the fridge. She got out a bunch of drinks and placed them all onto the counter. Then, she turned back to Shadow. "Okay! Which one do you want?"

"Uh… May I move closer to be able to see what my options are…?" asked Shadow as he stood up. Undyne became enraged in a millisecond and there the spear at the table which split the wooden table in half. Shadow jumped back onto the stool and shuddered. That could have hit him! Undyne stood in place for a few awkward moments. Shadow finally caught his breath again and slowly exhaled.

"Uhhhhh… Why don't you just point to what you want…? After all, I don't want my PRECIOUS GUEST to have to go through the stress of having to stand up and decide on their feet!" Undyne explained.

Shadow picked up the blue spear. It reminded him of his chaos spear. He should show it off. Undyne would love it. He looked around the house. He smirked as if he weren't being serious and pointed to the fridge. Undyne gasped.

"You want the ENTIRE FRIDGE!? NO!" she yelled as she jumped in front of her fridge to protect it. Shadow giggled and then lowered the spear. He turned and pointed to the sword. Undyne began to resist the temptation to grab it.

"Believe me, I'd love to stuff you with giant swords, if you weren't my LOVELY house guest!" she said.

Shadow gasped and looked like he had the greatest idea ever. He raised his spear and pointed it towards Undyne. Undyne took a step backward and she was a little surprised by his sudden action. "Are you… HITTING ON ME?!"

Shadow burst into laughter and dropped the spear. "I'm sorry! I deserve that giant sword! I'm sorry! Okay! I'll be serious now!" He then lowered his spear as Undyne still stood with a bunch of question marks hanging above her head. Shadow inspected his drink options. There was sugar. Why Undyne got out just plain sugar, he had no idea. There was sickly yellow soda that he didn't find to be so great. There was a couple of other things but the tea stuck out the most. He pointed to the sugar and then the tea. Undyne obviously thought he was trying to get the sugar.

"Who do you think I am to give you a cup full of sugar? The ice cream lady?! Do ice cream ladies in your world go around trying to kill innocent hedgehogs with electrical spears?!" she demanded.

"Actually, in my world, that happens A LOT," Shadow replied.

"Really? That's AWESOME!" she yelled.

"I meant to say that I wanted for you to put some sugar in the tea. Is that too much to ask?" he asked politely.

"If you're going to have that tea, you aren't going to want sugar in it. It's sweet enough! Golden Flower Tea?" she asked.

Shadow thought for a second and then nodded. He never had that kind of tea before, but there's a first time for everything. Undyne got out a teapot and a cup. Before long, she had a steaming cup of tea. She set it down in front of Shadow. "Here. It's still a little hot, though."

Shadow looked at it and waited for it to cool off. Undyne tapped her foot and got impatient with him. "IT'S NOT THAT HOT! Just drink it already!"

Startled by the sudden change again, he took a sip of the tea. It nearly burned his tongue, but other than that, it wasn't that bad. Undyne sat down at the other end of the table.

As Shadow sipped on his tea, Undyne started up a conversation about how he reminded her of the king. King Asgore. He didn't fight her either, but instead, he showed her how to defeat him. After many months of training, she was finally able to knock a blow on him and she felt bad, but he was beaming from horn to horn! She had never met someone so happy to get his butt whooped. That was when he made her the head of the Royal Guard to train newbies to fight.

"You know, speaking of newbies, what are you planning to do with Papyrus? All he wants to do is become a Royal Guardsman. Are you ever going to let him in?" Shadow asked.

Undyne looked around and leaned closer. "To be honest, I don't think I can ever let him into the Royal Guard… He's too sweet and innocent! On a battlefield, he'd only be torn to little smiling pieces… So, that's why I started teaching him to cook! I thought, maybe he could do something else in his life…," Undyne explained.

"Oh… Now I can understand why Papyrus has been waiting for so long to join…," Shadow replied as he finished off his tea.

Undyne heard him drink the last of the tea and stood up. "Oh, look at me! Rambling on and on like that! You're out of tea, aren't you? One second!" She began to make her way back to the fridge and stopped dead in her tracks. She turned back to Shadow. "Wait… Papyrus' cooking lesson! We were supposed to have that RIGHT NOW! You!" Undyne pointed to Shadow. "If Papyrus doesn't come back to have it, you're going to have it for him!"

Before Shadow knew what was even happening, she grabbed the fur on his back and carried him to the counter and knocked all of the drinks on the floor. She then set a bunch of veggies in front of him. "You're good at cooking, right? POUND THESE VEGGIES TO DUST WITH YOUR FISTS! Imagine them as your greatest enemies!"

Shadow smirked. Finally… He can fight something! "You bet I'm going to smash these…" Shadow summoned a chaos spear and Undyne gasped in delight and amazement. She got out her phone and began recording Shadow. Shadow used the spear to smash the veggies to smashed goo on the counter and grinned. He got a little bit too much pleasure out of that… Undyne looked happy, though!

"YES! You're awesome at this! We can just scrape all of this into a bowl later… FOR NOW, we add the noodles for the spaghetti we're making into the pot on the stove!" Undyne yelled as she pointed to the box of noodles by the pot.

Shadow picked up the box and ripped the top off and threw the noodles into the pot including the box! Undyne was yelling about how store bought noodles are THE CHEAPEST! They dumped the water into the pot and Undyne nodded to Shadow who nodded back. With a chaos spear, he stabbed at the noodles as he turned up the heat to full blast! Undyne screamed for him to make it hotter, Hotter, HOTTER! Until…

"WAIT! That's too-"

 _KER-POW!_

Shadow opened his eyes and looked around. He was covered in sauce and noodles and the house was blazing and burning. A fierce red glow was everywhere and Undyne was wrapping up her recording of the cooking session. Once she did that, she went to help Shadow to his feet with a huge grin.

"That was so awesome! So, what's next? Friendship bracelets? Scrapbooking?" she asked. She then dropped the smile and looked around and sighed. "Oh, who am I kidding? I can't force you to like me… I've learned that now… If you don't wanna be friends with me, that's fine… because, if we aren't friends…, I CAN KILL YOU WITHOUT REGRET!"

Shadow jumped when she grabbed a spear and pointed it at him. She growled to herself. "I've failed to kill you, my house is in shambles, and I even failed to befriend you! Now is my only chance to regain my lost pride… HIT ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!"

Shadow thought hard. There was only one way out of this. Show her all he had. He drew his fist back and ran towards her at full speed and then-!

 _ **-1HP**_

Undyne stopped and looked at Shadow who was huffing with all of his might. "REALLY!? That's all you can manage?! You know what, I don't really wanna fight you either…," she said as she let her spear fall to the floor. She sighed. "You a lot more like Asgore than I expected. "Your both TOTAL SOFTIES! However, you're a softy with a HUGE heart! I can respect that!"

Shadow stood up straighter and smiled. "So…, does that make us friends?"

"Well…," Undyne said as she thought. She grinned her huge grin and noogied Shadow. "YOU BET! After all of that, we're totally BESTIES! Now, uh, let's get out of here…"

"Agreed," Shadow replied as he stared at the flames all around them.

As soon as they were out of the house and got themselves cleaned up, they decided that they would part ways. However, Undyne said that she'd be at Snowdin with Papyrus in case if he wanted to talk to her again. Shadow had Papyrus' phone number, so he would only have to call Papyrus to reach Undyne. With that, Undyne went running away yelling her battle cry with a new ally and friend. Shadow stared down at his hands. HE made friends with Undyne… Would Sonic and Lily have done the same? Wow. He felt… good.


	10. Chapter 9 Hotland and Hot Stuff

Chapter 9 Hotland Hot Stuff

Shadow returned to Hotland and found Sonic and Lily. They went all out to celebrate Shadow befriending the head of the Royal Guard. They each got a Nice Cream and enjoyed the delicious sweetness. Lily was licking her nice cream when she looked over about 85 degrees to the left and she saw it! A HUGE laboratory. It was then she wondered how she possibly missed that…

"Hey, guys, did you notice that we're standing next to this ridiculously large laboratory?" she asked as she pointed awkwardly to the large building.

"Wow! That place is big!" Sonic exclaimed as he tried to do a mega jump to the top, but failed. Shadow raced over to it and kicked on the door. It opened.

"Why don't we check it out? If we weren't supposed to be here, then why is it so large?" Shadow asked as he kept the door open for them.

"Good point, " Lily said as she led them into the dark room.

The entire place was dark and spooky. They could hear some sort of piece of machinery running. An escalator was on in the room and there was this large TV screen showing images of… the three of them? As they looked around, they passed by a work desk covered with plans when the lights came flashing on! A yellow, female dinosaur came walking out of a door. Lily and Sonic jumped. Shadow blinked. Another dinosaur?

"O-Oh! Oh my goodness… Oh my goodness. OH MY GOODNESS! Th-The h-hedgehogs are r-right here! I-I'm barely even dressed! I-I haven't y-yet prepared for th-their arrivals! O-oh!" The yellow reptilian finally pulled herself together. She turned to the three hedgehogs with a nervous smile. "H-Hi! As you can see, I-I'm not really sure how to act in front of a hedgehog… D-Don't worry! I'm not one of the bad guys!"

"Yeah… We kinda figured," Shadow stated.

"Hi! What's your name?" asked Lily as she took a step closer with a wave.

"U-Uh… My n-name? Oh! Right! I'm Alphys! I-I'm the Royal Scientist for the king! King Asgore!" she replied.

"So you're the Royal Scientist! How cool!" Lily said to Alphys.

"Yep! J-Just me and- oh no… I completely forgot! I-I made this killing machine that wants to destroy all hedgehogs! You have to get out of here!" Alphys yelled as she began to push the three of them towards the door, but they all heard a bunch of crashing noises from behind the wall.

Alphys froze in terror and turned towards the crashing noises. Sonic, Shadow, and Lily followed her eyes to a huge hole in the wall with a rectangular robot standing there within the hole in the wall. It was holding up a microphone and had a few knobs on it, a screen for a face, and a wheel to help it move around. Alphys sucked in a breath.

"Alphys, what's that?!" Sonic demanded as he pointed to the robot.

"Why hello, beauties and gentle-beauties! It is I, Mettaton! I see we have some new contestants on our show today… Well! They're about to become a part of the greatest pilot episode in all of the Underground! Now, what might your names be?" asked Mettaton.

"I'm Sonic, the fastest thing alive."

"Lily."

"Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form."

Sonic smirked. "That's an awfully long title! Can I just call you Shadow, the ULF? I'm too lazy!" Sonic shrugged and Lily giggled.

"Shadow the ulf," Lily commented.

Shadow growled. "What's an "ulf" anyway?!" he demanded.

Mettaton threw a dictionary at Shadow. Shadow dodged the flying book. "Where'd you even get that?!"

"The shelf, you idiot. Where else would you find a book? However, as awesome and popular as throwing dictionaries at "ulfs" is, the fans viewing need something spectacular. They need... Drama! Romance! BLOODSHED!"

Alphys stood in front of the hedgehogs. She was shaking but was surprisingly defiant. "Th-That's enough Mettaton!"

"Oh, Alphys, Alphys, Alphys… What do you plan to do?" asked Mettaton.

"U-Uh… Um… I haven't had time to… th-think this through…," Alphys admitted.

"Great… My hero…" Shadow said as he rolled his eyes. Sonic nudged him and gave him a warning stare.

Mettaton somehow made the lights flicker out for ten seconds. When the lights came flickering back on, the room was completely set up for a game show. Sonic, Lily, and Shadow were the contestants… Sonic pumped himself up and got himself ready for whatever was going to happen.

"I-I've never been on a game show before! What am I supposed to do?!" demanded Lily as she looked around. She finally spotted Mettaton on the opposite side of the room wearing a shiny, red tux.

"Oh darling, the rules are easy! Get the answer right, or you shall die on the spot!" Mettaton explained as the contestants' souls drifted before them. Alphys was watching and was trying not to press a button on a remote control. She sorta fiddled with it in her hand.

Mettaton brought up the first question and looked to Shadow. The dark hedgehog groaned and looked up to the screen. The questions were multi-choice, at least. No written exams…, yet. The screen read the first question. What was the prize for answering correctly?

Money

Mercy

A new car

More questions

Shadow stared at them for a moment. He knew he wasn't going to get a new car or money, so he chose mercy. However, that was wrong.

"WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!" yelled Mettaton as he zapped Shadow with an electric stunner that knocked out about half of Shadow's HP. Sonic and Lily gasped.

"Ow! Watch where you point that thing!" Shadow snapped as he stood back up to his feet. Mettaton was giggling to himself and then pointed to Sonic.

"Okay… My turn…," Sonic said slowly as he stared at the stunner.

What is the king's full name?

Lord Fluffybuns

Fuzzy Pushover

Asgore Dreemurr

Dr. Friendship

Sonic knew the answer to this one! He selected C! Mettaton awarded him with more questions and confetti. He then moved on to Lily.

"That's enough about you. Let's talk about ME!" Mettaton yelled as he pointed to himself.

What are robots made of?

Hopes and Dreams

Metal and Magic

Snips and Snails

Sweet and Spice

Lily glanced over at Alphys who was making a large letter B with her hands. Lily quickly pressed the B button and got the answer right! More confetti!

"Too easy for you, huh? Well, time for the black hedgehog to get a chance to redeem himself!" Mettaton said as he pointed back at Shadow.

Shadow looked in horror at the question… It was so long… Here's what it said…

Two trains, train A and train B, simultaneously depart station A and station B. Station A and station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards station B, and train B is moving at 253.5mph towards station A. If both trains departed at 10:00am and it is now 10:08am, how much longer until both trains pass each other?

31.054 minutes

16.232 minutes

32.059 minutes

32.058 minutes

Shadow didn't have a clue. He had no idea what to do. He didn't know that Alphys was making the correct answer choice with her fingers. Shadow stared at the question. He chose C. Metttaton threw a dictionary at him again.

"WRONG! Can't you do math, hedgehog?!" demanded Mettaton.

"What?! How can you expect me to get the correct answer?! I can't do that much math in my head!" Shadow snapped.

"Dude, the correct answer was D!" Sonic told Shadow.

"How did you know that?!" Shadow questioned Sonic as he grabbed the blue hedgehog by the shoulders and drew him closer. Sonic and Lily remained silent due to not wanting to get Alphys in trouble for helping them.

Mettaton continued with the game show. Each of them got every answer correct thanks to Alphys except for Shadow who never figured out that Alphys was helping them. Mettaton brought up a question that made the entire game show turn over onto its face.

What is Mew Mew's favorite food from the anime Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?

"OOH! OOH! I know! I know! It's snail ice cream! I know because Mew Mew wanted them all to eat snail ice cream, but nobody else liked that flavor, so the story actually has a message that stresses… friendship…," Alphys said as her voice trailed away after her moment of nerding out. Busted!

"Alphys, darling, you weren't helping our contestants, were you?" asked Mettaton as he looked over at his creator. If he had a face, a smirk would be on it. When he didn't get an answer, he laughed. "Well, we can't have this now, can we? I'll ask a question you'll be sure to know the answer to!"

Who does Alphys have a crush on?

Undyne

Asgore

The hedgehogs

I don't know

"Each of you will get one chance to answer this one!" Mettaton said. Alphys was on the ground and was covering up her blushing face.

Shadow knew what the answer was immediately and smashed the button. The only time he knew what the correct answer was. Sonic had no idea. He knew that by the way Alphys was blushing, it wasn't I don't know. He pushed C. Lily did the same. Mettaton looked at the results and shrugged.

"Well, well, well! It appears that only one of you got this answer correct! Congradulations Shadow! You win the quiz show! The one person in the universe that Alphys has a crush on is none other than UNDYNE!" Mettaton yelled.

"WHY METTATON?! WHY?!" Alphys demanded.

"WHAT?!" demanded Sonic.

"Oh my gosh…," Lily said as she covered her mouth and grin.

Shadow grinned to himself and crossed his arms. "Heh. I'm the coolest!" he announced to the camera. The ratings increased by a few.

Meanwhile… Somewhere else in the Underground…

"The one person in the universe that Alphys has a crush on is none other than UNDYNE!" yelled Mettaton on a TV screen. Undyne was at Papyrus' house and was watching Mettaton's show and looked at the screen in disbelief. Undyne then screamed in victory and lifted up the couch before destroying it!

"I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!"

Back with the hedgehogs…

"Well, there's no dramatic tension with you helping out our contestants, but there'll be more! After all, this was only the pilot episode! Tune in next time for more Drama! Romance! Bloodshed! Toodles everybody!" Mettaton yelled with a wave as he flew through the roof.

Alphys took a deep breath and stood to her feet. After a moment of silence, she apologized on Mettaton's behalf. "I'm sorry… I had no idea that Mettaton would do that… Let me explain the monitor. I've sorta set up a bunch of cameras around the Underground to monitor your activity. At first, I wanted to capture your soul to turn them in to Asgore to break open the barrier, but as I watched your journey… I wanted less and less to capture you guys… So, now I want to help you! You're going through Hotland, right? How about I guide you through? I-If you… w-want me to…," Alphys suggested.

Sonic nodded eagerly. "Sure! We'd love it if you helped us! We've never actually been here before. So, a tour guide would be nice!"

"R-Really?! Gimme your phone for a minute! I'll insert my number into it-! This phone is ancient!" Alphys exclaimed as she stared at the phone that Toriel gave them. She ran away with it for a moment. They heard a bunch of loud, grinding noises and a shriek. Sonic watched in horror, but was relieved when the phone came back looking exactly the way it did before. Alphys handed it happily to them.

"What's different about it?" asked Shadow as he looked it over.

"I've connected it to the Underground's box system! Now you can put items you found into a box on your phone! Also, I've hooked you up to the number one Undernet system in the Underground. Plus, this is my favorite, I've added the texting feature onto your phone! Now I can text you at any time!" Alphys told them excitedly.

"Nice! Does it do online gaming?" asked Lily as she looked through the apps.

"No… However, I installed a rim shot app! I was just feeling a little random I guess… I'm sure that you'll be needing it for the next time you meet up with that short skeleton guy that I kept on seeing and giggling at. He's funny!"

"Funny and scary…," Shadow mumbled.

"Huh?" asked Lily.

"Nothing," Shadow answered.

"Well, I guess that means that I'll be seeing you… Um… Uh… I've gotta go to the bathroom!" Alphys yelled as she ran into the door that she had came out of.

Sonic, Lily, and Shadow each looked at each other awkwardly and then made their ways out the door. They were only two steps away from the laboratory when they got a text message. And another one. And another one. And another one… Shadow wanted to trash his phone so bad because of all of the messages.

"Dude! Chill out!" yelled Sonic as he held back Shadow and gave the phone to Lily. After a few breathing exercises, they finally were able to continue. Mettaton and Alphys. A TV star and a nerd who won't stop texting them over random stuff. Oh boy…


	11. Chapter 10 The Trials of Television

Chapter 10 The Trials of Television

"Oh my gosh… I think I'm gonna hurl…"

"Motion sickness?" asked Sonic to Shadow.

Shadow nodded and tried to keep himself together. After calling Undyne and hearing her talk about throwing up on the conveyor belts made him want to throw up. It was still better than being taken over at least by some outside force of some sort. "I never knew how horrible it was until now…"

They were running around doing puzzles like crazy. One way, puzzle. Another way, puzzle. Up way, down way, sideways, anyways, they were soon getting sick of it. They would have gotten bored if it weren't for…

Lily looked ahead. Everything was black which made her uncomfortable. When Sonic and Shadow caught up with her after dying by lava and timing the jumps across the lava several times, they also didn't find the dark area very welcoming. Alphys called them.

"H-Hey! W-What's the holdup? Is s-something the matter?" she asked them.

"Yeah. There's this really dark room that we're not liking…," Sonic explained as he inched closer into the room with his two friends behind him. They slowly walked into the darkness.

"Th-That's strange… I don't see this on my map… D-Don't worry! Y-You should be fine!" Alphys told them assuringly. Shadow wasn't so sure.

 _Click!_

The lights came flashing on and they were all standing behind a counter next to Mettaton in what looked like a kitchen with a camera pointed at them. It looked like they were on a cooking show…

"Oh-no…," Alphys said.

"OH YES! Welcome to the Underground's premier cooking show! Cooking with a Killer Robot!" Mettaton announced as the words appeared in front of them before fading away again. Mettaton then turned to the three hedgehogs. "For today's show, we have three guests! Everybody give these three a huge hand!" There was then lots of clapping and lots of confetti. Shadow knew he wouldn't get all the paper confetti out of his mouth for weeks.

"I wish Mettaton would ask before he started filming us!" Sonic snapped.

"Oh, where would be the fun in that, darling? On today's show, we'll be baking… a cake! My lovely assistants will be gathering the ingredients! Now, we need milk, eggs, and flour. Each of you, go get one of each!" Mettaton commanded as he pointed to the milk, eggs, and flour.

Sonic shrugged and got the eggs, Lily found the flour, and Shadow got the milk. They each brought back the stuff and put it on the counter. Mettaton applauded them.

"Marvelous, darlings! It seems as if we almost have all of the ingredients we need!" Mettaton announced as he looked at the milk, eggs, and flour.

"Almost?" asked Sonic as he tilted his head to the side.

"That's right! There's still one more thing we need! And that is… THREE HEDGEHOG SOULS!" Mettaton yelled as he held up a huge chainsaw and got it going. Sonic yelled in terror.

"Ch-Chainsaw!" Sonic yelled as he sprang out of the way and jumped into the refrigerator in terror. Mettaton stopped and looked at Sonic for a moment. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Dude, you've seen worse. You're seriously scared over a chainsaw!" Shadow snapped. Mettaton nodded in agreement with Shadow's quote.

"I have to admit that it is sad. Ten people in the Underground just watched you just into a freezer in terror," Mettaton stated.

Sonic huffed and hopped out of the fridge. He spun into a spin attack and knocked over Mettaton with the spin attack. It didn't do anything.

Suddenly, the phone rang again. This time, it was Mettaton's phone. He sighed and answered the phone. "What is it?! I'm in the middle of a show here!"

Alphys quickly answered. "U-Um… C-Couldn't you make a… a substitution? For people who a-are… Vegan…?" asked Alphys.

Mettaton stopped and looked around. Alphys was stuck in the awkward silence. Sonic was still alarming over the chainsaw. Mettaton then started applauding the idea! "That's a wonderful idea! I actually have a can of human-ish-soul-extract for baking over there on that counter that's separated from everything for some reason! Shadow, would you please go get it for us?" asked Mettaton.

Shadow walked over to the counter. He was grumbling to himself about how he knew it was a trap and wasn't surprised when the counter sprang to life and shot up, up, up, up to the sky above before stopping abruptly. The tower trembled and shivered and shook, but somehow, it didn't fall. Shadow turned around looking really annoyed. "Hey Mettaton, how are we supposed to have any dramatic tension if I can't get to the whatever at the top of this counter?"

If Mettaton had a face, it would have been downright evil. "Well, you're going to climb that thing of course! However, we have an extremely strict schedule! If you don't get that can in TWO MINUTES then… we'll go back to the original plan!" Mettaton said with glee. He grabbed onto his chainsaw and a basket and flew away. Lily and Sonic saw Shadow stand there frozen for a second and then begin the climb up the counter.

Alphys suddenly called. Shadow got out his phone and hung up. He kept climbing. Mettaton was watching in amazement at his determination. He was his own hero. Alphys called again. Shadow hung up again. With one minute remaining, Shadow made it halfway to the top. Lily's jaw was dropped and Sonic was shaking his head thinking about what a show-off Shadow was.

"My, my, my! It appears as if someone is quite determined to not die! Also, the fact that you won't answer your phone is actually quite amusing… However, can you dodge these?!" demanded Mettaton as he began to throw dough at Shadow and flour. Shadow easily dodged and his pace wasn't even slowed one bit. Mettaton began to panic a little when Shadow reached the three-fourths mark. He dumped out all of the cooking materials and utensils just above Shadow's head. Shadow looked up with surprise and saw a bunch of sharp kitchen utensils falling first to kill him. However, his mind was faster. He snatched the knife from midair and slashed all of the utensils and food out of his way with extreme precision. Mettaton, Lily, and Sonic were freaking out at how awesome he was.

Shadow looked down at the knife. Why did it feel so natural to him? He shoved aside the thought when only twenty seconds remained. He sprang to the top and grabbed the substitution. He glowered down on everything and then smirked. Sonic wondered what had gotten into him. Shadow then shook his head. He seemed to snap out of whatever phase he was in and he turned to Mettaton.

"Well, well, welly, well, well, welly… It appears as if you've defeated me… Besides, haven't you ever seen a cooking show before? I've already made the cake!" Mettaton announced.

Shadow looked over at the ground and saw Lily and Sonic eating the cake. Shadow flattened his ears. All of that work for nothing. "Gee, thanks a lot… Mettaton, I promise that you'll regret all of this one day…

Once the three of them were able to continue, they ran into a familiar face. Sans! Shadow hung back and tried to ignore Sans' suspicious gaze. Sonic and Lily ran to greet him immediately.

"Hi, Sans!" Lily said.

"Hey, so you finally come around. How's Hotland?" Sans asked casually.

Lily sighed and looked around. "It's very hot…, I'm starving…, and I don't have any money…," she replied.

Sonic shook his head. He got out a wallet from somewhere and turned it over. Gold tumbled out and scattered across the ground. "I've got that covered. I lied to those Temmies about being broke! We're actually freakishly rich!"

Everyone was staring at the puddle of money on the ground. Sans finally spoke. "Well, if you're starving, you're in luck. I'm selling hot dogs for free. Would ya like some?" asked Sans.

Lily's belly grumbled and she nodded. Sans smiled and then handed her a hot dog…? Lily stared at it awkwardly and then started eating it. She stopped and looked at it. She read a short description.

 **It appears to be made from a familiar plant which is also known as… a water sausage.**

"Oh my gosh!" Shadow yelled from the other end of the clearing at Sans. The comical skeleton had to laugh.

"Gimme one!" Sonic said.

"Huh. You guys must really like hot animals… However, I've run out of hot dogs. You can just have a hot cat instead." Sans handed Sonic a hot cat. Sonic stared at the hot cat and it looked up at him. It looked like an actual cat made from a hot dog.

"Meow!" it said.

"Th-That's adorable and disturbing at the same time…," Sonic commented.

"Oh my gosh!" Shadow yelled again at Sans from across the clearing.

"I think he'll also want one," Lily said pointing to Shadow. Before she knew it, she had a 'dog in her hand. It was just another hot dog…? Lily was confused. Sans gave her another. An apostrophe- 'dog is what it was Sans said… What was even going on anymore? Lily ran out of room in her hands, so Sans started stacking the hot dogs on her head. Shadow looked over to Sans again. You know what he said.

"OH MY GOSH!"

Sans continued stacking. He finally stopped at twenty-nine hot dogs. He stared at his tower with satisfaction. "There. On the house. Well, actually, it's on you."

Lily stood trembling under all of the hot dogs. What would happen if she were to move…? Sonic walked up to her and pulled her out from all the hot dogs. They all went crashing to the ground! All twenty-nine hot dogs bounced and splattered all over the ground. Sans got out an umbrella. Sonic and Lily were unable to dodge all of the raining hot dogs. They were doing a face plant on the ground soon after. Shadow glared at Sans.

"OH. MY. GOSH!"

Sans put a final hot dog on the fainted Lily's head. "Have fun!" XD

Lily finally got revived and Sonic was eventually okay. They continued and found themselves in another odd room with a bunch of random objects scattered everywhere. Undertale (the actual game), a dog, an Undertale script (with Mettaton!), a basketball, a glass of water, and many other things. Sonic looked at the strange dog that has been stalking them all throughout their entire journey. It barked. As they continued, they saw Mettaton and the exits were blocked off by blue electrical beams. Mettaton flew before them with a camera on his face.

"OH YES! Good evening beauties and gentlebeauties! This is Mettaton reporting live from MTT News! An interesting situation has arisen in eastern Hotland! Thankfully, our brave correspondents are out there now to investigate! Brave correspondents! Please find something newsworthy to report!" Mettaton yelled at the three hedgehogs.

Sonic ran over to the cute dog and pointed to it. Lily nodded and Shadow shrugged. Mettaton turned to the viewing audience. What an amazing opportunity story! I can see the headline now! A dog exists somewhere. You want to report this to the viewers?" asked Mettaton. When they all nodded, he continued.

"I just hope that this plan doesn't explode in our faces…," Shadow stated as he sat down on the ground to pet the dog.

"Attention viewers! Our correspondents have found… a dog! (Cue audience awws). That's right folks! It's the feel-good story of the year! Look at its little ears, tiny paws, fluffy tail…," Mettaton cooed. However, then he stopped and looked alarmed. "WAIT A SEC! That's not a tail! That's… a fuse!"

Shadow then jumped away from the dog when the tail fuse lit itself. Sonic and Lily backed away slowly from the dog and Shadow held a chaos spear to defend them as well as himself. The dog… was a bomb!

Mettaton cackled in front of the three hedgehogs. "That's right… That dog's a bomb! However, no need to panic! You haven't even seen the rest of the room yet!" Mettaton announced with a snap of his fingers. The other random objects then turned into bombs! The basketball, the water, the script, the present, the game, and… EVERYTHING!

"Oh my goodness… This is hardly fair!" Lily yelled at Mettaton.

"Sorry. Bad guys don't play by the rules. That present's a bomb! That basketball's a bomb! Even my words are bombs!" yelled Mettaton as his words came flying out of the dialogue box and exploded everywhere on the ground. Sonic yelled and jumped back.

Alphys called them on the phone. Sonic answered it this time. Lily came closer to here what Alphys had to say. A bomb defusing app was on their phone? Wow. They hardly knew. Maybe that was why their phone screamed when Alphys upgraded it…

Shadow paid no attention to the call. He grinned and readied himself. He saw something out of the corner of his eye. It gave him an idea.

"Brave correspondents! If you don't defuse these bombs in two minutes, then this big bomb will blow up in your faces!" Mettaton announced.

"I told you that this would blow up in our faces!" Shadow yelled to Sonic.

"I should listen to you more often!" Sonic yelled back.

"Would you please pay attention?! The big bomb will explode in two minutes! Blah, blah, blah, blah! Go for it! Timer begins… NOW!" Mettaton yelled as he started the timer.

Sonic jumped and, with Lily, began racing around to find the bombs. Shadow, however, went directly to the big bomb. He looked at it for a moment and then kicked it! The bomb fell down a cliff and into the lava below. Shadow ran towards Sonic and Lily and got them down as fast as he could. Because…

 _KER-POW!_

Was it a big bomb? It was a BIG BOMB. When the bomb hit the lava, it burst. Mettaton was fine. Shadow, Sonic, and Lily were a little singed, but they were fine. Sonic exhaled a ring of smoke and had a coughing fit. Lily started coughing a little before chewing out Shadow. However, Shadow was laughing. He laughed so hard at what he did. He nearly destroyed everything.

"W-Well… Lovely viewers! I do hope that you enjoyed this amazing light show that was created by Shadow the Hedgehog! That'll be all for MTT News for now! Goodbye!" Mettaton yelled as he flew away.

Awkward pause…

"Well, that was one bomb experience that I could've lived without… Shadow, what's wrong with you?!" demanded Lily as she smacked him in the face.

"Ow. I have no idea…," Shadow replied.

Sonic shook his head and then sprang to his feet. The blue electrical beams had vanished. Undyne suddenly called. Shadow picked up the phone and Undyne's voice nearly made him go deaf.

"SHADOW, YOU ARE AWESOME! That was the best explosion ever! I saw it all on TV! WHY DIDN'T YOU INVITE ME OVER TO DESTROY STUFF?!" she yelled.

Shadow grinned a competitive grin and started acting like Undyne herself. They really were besties now… "Oh my gosh! I should've invited you! That would've made this party even BETTER! Next time I plan to destroy something, I'll let you know. You'd better come running!"

"YOU BET!" Undyne yelled back.

With that, the phone called ended. Sonic looked to Lily with concern. The next time he destroyed something… Oh boy…

After going up an elevator and continuing, they ran into a spider lady who was selling spider pastries. Sonic has a mild phobia of spiders, though…

"SPIDER! AHHHHH!" Sonic cried as he sprang away and began to run away. Lily went to go get him and Shadow stayed.

"Sorry about him. He's afraid of spiders…," Shadow explained to the spider lady.

The spider lady nodded and shrugged with a sweet grin. "Oh! It's fine~ We meet people like that all the time! We just need some money to save the spiders who are trapped in the ruins! They got stuck in there and can't get out. If they were to leave, they'd freeze to death… Also, my name's Muffet!" she explained.

Shadow actually liked spiders, so he had to sympathize with her. "How much for a donut?!" he demanded as he got out his wallet.

Muffet looked pleasantly surprised. She smiled again. "Why~ It's only a small fee of 9,999 gold! What do you think?" she asked.

Shadow's eyes stretched wide when he heard the price. However, he was determined… He turned over his wallet and screamed at the top of his lungs. An endless waterfall of money poured out of it. Muffet gasped in delight as she stared at all of the money. The money stopped at 9,999 gold. Shadow huffed and puffed. He then held out his hand.

"Donut?"

Shadow caught up with Sonic and Lily. They did more puzzles and he got more motion sickness from springing around everywhere. After puzzles, they came across a room with spider webs hanging off of the walls. Spiders were giggling a whispering to each other. Sonic tried to ignore everything and not scream. Lily was complaining about never being able to get the webs out of her shoes. Shadow was looking around hoping to find his new friend Muffet.

Suddenly, a bunch of spiders came in from out of nowhere and wrapped up Sonic in a giant web! Sonic jumped out of his fur, terrorized. The spiders looked to Shadow. They smiled and waved. They turned to Lily and didn't really care. They looked at Sonic and bared their spider fangs at him. As Sonic kicked and screamed, he realized that his soul was turned purple. The spider lady appeared from the dark and ominous shadows of the room. She laughed at Sonic's attempts to escape.

"Oh no, you're not!" Lily snapped at Muffet as she spun into a spin attack and rocketed towards her. Shadow blocked Lily's way and he got hit hard in the face. Muffet hissed at Lily for hurting Shadow and pointed to Lily. Just as the spiders got distracted with Lily, Sonic was able to thrash his way out of the webs. He raced to rescue Lily but didn't there fast enough to keep her from having, even more, webs in her hair.

"Are you okay?!" demanded Sonic as he ran with Lily scooped up in his hands.

"NO! They're trying to kill us! Why aren't they attacking Shadow?!" Lily demanded. Sonic shrugged and noticed something weird. HIS WALLET WAS GONE…

Sonic looked over at Shadow who was making a peace treaty with the spiders. The spiders listened to him 100 percent and agreed not to give them any more trouble. However, as Sonic looked closer at Shadow's oversized fist, he saw his wallet within it. It was EMPTY.

"Okay, so, no more fighting?" asked Shadow as he stuck his hand out for a handshake. Muffet accepted his hand and nodded.

"No more fighting. After given us all of that gold, I couldn't possibly say no to such an easy and free request! Huhuhuhuhu~" Muffet answered Shadow.

Directly after they left the room, Sonic turned to Shadow with an evil grin. Shadow paused and looked into the faker's eyes without flinching. "Yeah?"

"You. Stole. My. Wallet. You. Shall. Die. Here," Sonic replied.

Lily jumped between Sonic and Shadow. She smacked both of them in the face. Shadow for being an idiot and Sonic for losing his temper. Sonic rubbed his cheek and glared at Shadow. Shadow rubbed his cheek, but Shadow said nothing. He actually almost grinned. Who knew the pain was so hilarious? Oh, wait. It's not.

"I have no idea what's gotten into the minds of you two, but I want this crazy attitudes from both of you to stop! I know I sound like our goat mom, but it's true! You two have been crazy since the quiz show! You especially Shadow! What's wrong with you?!" she demanded.

"I just want to live life to the fullest and see other people live and **love** …," Shadow said with a mysterious tone of voice.

Sonic was scared for Shadow now. He wasn't Shadow anymore. He was… different… It seemed like he was more arrogant and didn't care as much about the feelings others might have because of his actions. Were his eyes a darker red all of the sudden…?

 _I was suspicious of your eyes because of something that Sans told me. He said that even the greatest liars can't get rid of the truth. They just put the truth in a storage shed. That storage shed is known as the eyes. You can always see what another is feeling from their eyes. The reason I don't trust your eyes is because I can't read your feelings. It's… almost intimidating…_

Before they could really think about that anymore, they got trapped in another electrical beam. Sonic sighed. Shadow sighed as well. This had better be the last trap before a save point… The background was beautiful and they all looked up to see Mettaton. Mettaton was peering out of a window in a gown.

"Could it be…? My one true love…?" asked Mettaton as he went down the stone stairs as the music began to play. He then began to sing.

 _Oh, my love…_

 _Please run away…_

 _Monster king_

 _Forbids your stay…_

Shadow flattened his ears. He found the location of the music and brought his arm back for a chaos spear. Mettaton spotted Shadow and used his long mechanical arms to pluck Shadow from the ground and force the helpless hedgehog to dance with him. Sonic and Lily giggled as Shadow was struggling to get out of the grasp of the robot. He couldn't quite get out of the robot's grasp…

 _Hedgehogs must…_

 _Live far apart…_

 _Even if…_

 _It breaks my heart…_

Shadow struggled. He kicked. He was muffled, so he couldn't scream. Sonic was clapping to the music with Lily. Mettaton looked like he was enjoying this a little bit too much.

 _They'll throw you…_

 _In the dungeon!_

 _It'll suuuuuuck!_

 _And then you'll die a lot!_

 _Really sad…_

 _You're gonna die!_

 _Cry, cry, cry…_

 _So sad it's happening…_

When the music faded out, Shadow had little spirals of despair replacing his actual eyes. Mettaton faked a sniffle.

"So sad… Too bad you have to be thrown into the dungeon… Oh well! Toodles!" Mettaton yelled as he threw Shadow down a trap door and left Lily and Sonic where they were without trapping them. They looked in alarm at where they disappeared. They were unable to do anything…

"Welcome to the dungeon, Shadow! This is your punishment for doing what you've been doing to my shows! You deserve everything that you get down here! Guess what? Alphys deleted your phone number! Because you'd never answer it, she got fed up with calling you and deleted the number! So now, there's just you and me… I don't even care if you die or not anymore! Let's see how you deal with this!" Mettaton yelled as he pushed a button. A bunch of colored tiles lit up! Mettaton pretended to look alarmed.

"A flashy dance floor? That's it?" asked Shadow as he crossed his arms and smirked at the tiles.

"This isn't a dance floor! This is the dreaded color tile maze! The rules are simple! If you stand on a green tile, you'll have to fight a monster, if you step on a yellow- HEY! WHERE'D YOU GO?!" demanded Mettaton as he looked around for Shadow. With a hop, skip, and a jump, Shadow was gone. Mettaton stared at the TV camera with a fire burning in his circuits.

"He'll pay for this… Final episode… REVENGE…"


	12. Chapter 11 It's Raining Somewhere

**_Hey, guys! Sorry about the lack of updates for this story, but here it is! The reason it's been slow is because of school and lack of inspiration, but I'm doing everything I can to keep this going. I plan on having a huge plot twist towards the end of Chapter 13 that's going to make the plot EPIC! So, please enjoy Chapter 11 and I'll try to get this updated a lot faster next time!_**

"I find it hard to believe that you defeated Mettaton. When I used that spin attack on him, it did nothing!" Sonic exclaimed.

Lily nodded and Shadow huffed. "Undyne believed me! She was excited that I was able to humiliate that robot again! You two have no idea how satisfying it feels!"

Sonic sighed and shook his head. What was up with Shadow these days? It felt like he was just getting worse. They should almost be at the end, so it couldn't be that bad. They had been warned of the Core by the locals. They also heard that Mettaton was actually really popular. So, they did still have quite a ways to go before they reached King Asgore's castle. A hotel was in sight, so maybe they could stop and rest there. Well, after saving at the save point.

Shadow continued to ramble about his greatness and annoyed Lily to death when they saw a familiar face. Lily lit up. Sonic smiled and waved. Shadow's ears pricked and his eyes were filled with terror almost. Sans.

"Well, well, well… Look at who's come…," Sans said as he looked Shadow in the eye. Shadow took a few steps back and tried to act casual.

"Hi, Sans! Long time, no see!" Lily chirped.

Sonic laughed at the quote. "Not the first and surely not the last time I'll hear that line!" Memories of Sonic Heroes came rushing back.

Sans leaned against the hotel wall. "Say, I'm on break right now. If you don't mind, I'll treat ya to dinner. I got something to speak with the three of you about. Don't worry. I'm buying," he said.

Lily had shimmering eyes and her stomach growled. Aside from the fact that she was starving, she first waited for Sonic and Shadow to answer. Shadow, of course, was once again avoiding Sans by any means necessary. Sonic was already nodding rapidly. "You bet I wanna eat something! Shadow squandered all of our money!"

Shadow put his hands up in his defense. "Hey! I had to give something to Muffet! We're besties now! Well, actually, my bestie is still Undyne, but I can have two besties, right?" he asked.

"I'm not surprised by your friend list…," Sans stated as he stared at Shadow in particular. His intensity was matched by no other and Shadow's skin began to crawl.

Sonic looked to Shadow. His face was fearful of what would happen. It was almost as if he was unsure of what to believe. His dark friend was mumbling something under his breath. "My past killer is asking me on a dinner date? What's wrong with this…? Will he kill me in there? No. Surely not in front of my "friends"…," he mumbled. Sonic shivered. Shadow's eyes were red once more…

"Of course, take us in!" Lily chirped.

A hop, skip, and a shortcut later, the four of them were inside and sitting at a table. Steaks in the shape of Mettaton's face were on the plates. Lily was stuffing the face steak down her throat because she hadn't eaten in so long. Sonic was waiting vainly for a chili dog to appear on his plate, but it never came. He finally just gave in and started biting away at his steak. Shadow just sat. The neverending staring contest was occurring. Nobody knew who was going to break first. The possessed maniac or the skeleton. Shadow inhaled deeply and broke the tension building up. "So, what is it that you wanted to say to me, funny man?" Shadow asked.

Despite how familiar the insult sounded, Sans shrugged it off. He knew Shadow was being possessed by now. "I wanted to tell you a little story. The same one I told a friend a long time ago. I'm sure you'll quite enjoy this actually, Chara," Sans stated.

Every muscle froze in Shadow and he stared at the tablecloth. Lily looked up, confused. "His name is Shadow. Not Chara!" she claimed.

 _I very well am Chara…_

Sonic read Shadow's face. That was exactly what it said. "Shads, what's he talking about…?" he asked.

"DON'T CALL ME SHADS, YOU BLUE PIPSQUEAK!" Shadow yelled towards Sonic. He froze again and drew his eyes further down until they were on the floor. Sonic sat, wide-eyed.

"Okay, okay. Don't start killing each other. It'll only take a moment. I just want you to consider something Chara, so listen up. You know how I'm a sentry in Snowdin Forest, correct?" All three hedgehogs nod. "Good. Because one day, I was just hanging 'round outside my station. Naturally, I got bored standing there, so I started exploring the area. After a few minutes of looking around, I found a door. It was a huge door, perfect for telling knock-knock jokes. So, that's what I did. Hour after hour after hour."

"Of course…," Shadow stated with a roll of his eyes.

"However, one day, someone replied. 'Who's there'?"

Shadow sat up straight. His ears suddenly pricked. Yet another wave of recognition flashed through his red eyes and the owner of the voice of the entering character rested at the tip of her tongue. Goat mom? Toriel? "M-Mo- Toriel?"

Sans noticed the sudden change in facial expression, noted the mistake in words, and continued. "Of course, I was as surprised as he is," Sans stated as he pointed to Shadow who flattened his ears at being called out for his mistake. "Naturally, I answered her knock."

"Dishes."

"Dishes who?"

"Dishes a very, very, very bad knock-knock joke."

Sonic snickered and Lily rolled her eyes with a grin. Sans waited for Sonic to finish snickering and was once again back on subject. The tension neither eased or intensified. It still hung in the air. "Well, she laughed a lot harder than Sonic. Almost as if she hadn't heard a joke in a hundred years. But, back then, it was true that she didn't have anyone to ease her pain and loneliness. I'm sure all of you would go crazy too if you had to sit alone for years, decades, or centuries even… So, I came back. Again and again with jokes up my sleeves. She'd laugh and laugh. One day, I heard her knock and so I had to answer."

"Knock knock!"

"Who's there?"

"Old lady."

"Old lady who?"

"I didn't know you could yodel!"

Sonic had yet another fit of snickering with Lily now joining him. Shadow was in deep thought. Jokes, huh? She did have quite the sense of humor. But it wasn't the jokes he cared about. "What is the point of this? So you know Toriel. What does this have to do with us?"

"There was one day where I showed up at the door. I knocked and told her a joke, but she didn't laugh. Knowing something was wrong, I asked. If there was something in history I could change… it would be asking what was wrong because what she said…," Sans said with his voice drifting away. Sonic and Lily leaned in. Shadow gripped the tablecloth. Sans saw the both of them were paying attention and he let his eyes go black. Lily jerked back by this sudden change. Sonic flinched, but his will to find out wasn't at all damaged. Sans made sure his eyes burned directly into Shadow's eyes. " **Her words saved your ungrateful little life, Shadow**."

…

"Can I ask you to promise me something…? Please…"

"Uh… I'm not very good with promises. Depends on what you're asking of me."

"If anyone with a soul comes through this door… I want you to promise me that you'll protect them… Because if they die… I'll never forgive myself. Please…"

…

"If it weren't for that promise I made…, you'd all have been dead where you stood. So here's the moral of all of this, Shadow. You must understand the consequences of failing to uphold your promise… If you don't… I may need to go into the bad time department," Sans explained.

Shadow looked up. His eyes had returned to normal. He nods slowly. "I don't want to hurt anybody, but it's not like this is easy… She comes in my sleep and takes control. Taking back control is what's hard. But… I'll try as hard as I can… because I can't afford to fail this battle… against myself."

Sans nods and stands up. "Welp, that was a really long break. I should really be going before Papyrus gets mad again. But hey, I'm still rootin' for you guys." He then glances towards Shadow. "Even you, believe it or not. Because I made a promise… And you're our only hope…"

They watched Sans walk away and vanish into thin air. After a moment's silence, Sonic looked over at Lily's steak. "So…, are you going to eat that?"

"That's seriously what you're thinking about?!"

Walking out of the restaurant, Shadow stared at the save point next to the fountain shaped like Mettaton. It spewed water onto the floor and it sank through the carpet. He wondered where the water went once it went through the carpet and deep into the cracks of the Underground. Would it rain down onto the statue they saw back in Waterfall? That was a crazy thought! He ignored the save point. Lily and Sonic touched it. Shadow reluctantly followed.

Outside, they saw the Core ahead of them. It would be one of those moments where Alphys would call and explain. However, Alphys got rid of their phone number. Something else happened. Papyrus and Undyne called instead. Shadow got a sudden burst of hope as he answered the phone.

"Hey, Shadow! Alphys called me earlier and told me that you were just at the Core! That's totally rad! You're really close now to Asgore's castle!" Undyne yelled into the speaker.

"Asgore's castle…," Lily stated as she gazed into the Core. Two dark, shady figures snuck into the Core just ahead of them. Only Lily noticed, but she decided not to make a big deal out of it. They wouldn't play a major part in the story anyway.

Sonic greeted Undyne and was tragically shot down by Undyne's spear. Not an actual spear, but her spear-like words towards him. Apparently, the only one Undyne was rooting for was Shadow… She began to quickly explain. "Alright, once you get inside the Core, there should be this elevator. Once you get there, use the elevator to get to the top and you should reach Asgore's Castle. Also, if you hurt our king, YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN FOR IT! Our cell signal disappears as soon as you enter, so this is the last I'll hear from you unless if you're successful," Undyne explained. Her voice wavered slightly.

Shadow felt bad. He knew the risks. He knew what needed to be done. "Undyne, if I do come back… Do you wanna have another crazy cooking session…?" he asked trying to raise her hopes.

"Y-Yeah… Sure… Not like… anything's wrong… We'll become the best cooks in the universe with Papyrus by our side!" she proclaimed. It was obvious that she didn't believe in her enthusiasm.

"UNDYNE! COME ON! THE STOVE IS READY AND BLAZING!" Papyrus yelled in the background. A random explosion went off and footsteps were heard. "AH! THAT STUPID MUTT HAS RAIDED THE SINK AGAIN!"

"I'll be there in a minute, Papyrus!" Undyne yelled. She returned to Shadow. "Listen, I'm not good at goodbyes… Just… Free everyone. Okay?"

"Okay…"

"Promise, Shads?"

"I… I promise!"

"And promise too that you won't die! Or I'll pummel you!"

"I'll keep that in mind."

 _Click…_

Shadow lowered the phone slowly and stared up at the Core. So, that was the last time he'd ever hear Undyne's voice again? His hand fiddled with the phone. He had to be strong and he couldn't let Chara take over again. Clearing his mind, he walked slowly into the Core. Sonic and Lily followed obediently. They knew how hard it was to say goodbye to a friend.

Thinking the journey was almost over, Shadow approached the elevator, placed his hand on it, and waited. It didn't open. With a quick glance towards a security camera, he figured out that Alphys was watching intently on what he'd do. "Hey, Alphys… I know you have control over the entire Core! Give the stupid elevator power!"

"Shadow, why are you yelling at Alphys? She's not even here!" Sonic exclaimed. He was corrected with a point towards the camera.

"Alphys, don't suppose you want me to damage the Core or something? I've heard several rumors about this place… That the Core supplies power to the Underground, that it is incredibly unstable unless if kept cool by those blocks of ice the ice wolf throws into the water, and even that there was another scientist who fell into this place and became forgotten by everyone. Lost in the code. I can destroy this place. I can throw Sonic into the Core and make him suffer the same fate that W.D. Gaster did! So, unless if you want to regret everything, you'll supply power to the elevator…," Shadow threatened. Sonic knew he was bluffing, but he couldn't help but wonder. How serious was he? How did he obtain all of that information?

Lights to the elevator flicked on and it was immediately obvious that Alphys was indeed listening. Shadow grinned from his success and hopped into the elevator.

"Hey, Lily? What do you think is going to happen to Shadow when we get close to the end?" Sonic questioned with an annoyed look in his eyes.

"I think… he'll explode?" Lily replied with uncertainty.

"No… I think it's going to be worse…"


	13. Chapter 12 Death By Glamour

Chapter 12 Death By Glamour

"Well, hello, darlings! You're earlier than I expected you to be… Perhaps you bribed Alphys into bringing you here on the elevator? Whatever. That's not what matters now…," stated Mettaton with a slightly different tone of voice than the other times. He sounded way more serious.

"So, what are you planning, Mettaton?! Is it another plan that's bound to fail?!" demanded Sonic.

"My, my! Very bold, Sonic! However, this is one show that you can't take from me… This is my spotlight! This is my time to shine! You can't stop me from flipping this switch on my back!" Mettaton announced.

Lily looked confused. "There's a switch on your back?" she questioned.

Mettaton turned around and they all saw a bright red sliding switch. Shadow huffed ready for anything. He was tempted to flip the switch himself just to make Mettaton mad.

"Why Shadow, you seem unamused by my shows. I can't have that! This showdown is just between you and me! The other two can help if they so wish, but this is our fight," the robot proclaimed. Flipping the switch, he did his final pose in his rectangular form. "Prepare to be dazzled, sweetheart!"

Spotlights fired up and an explosion erupted in the room. Everyone was thrown away from Mettaton and a cloud of dust sprung up. A new voice arose from the dust cloud. The human-like voice shot through the air and erupted in everyone's ears. It was a voice that made Chara's influence vanish.

 _This… This wasn't supposed to happen! Shadow! What's going on?! Explain now!_

"Chara, shut up and let me take this."

"Oh yes…"

"Oh no…," said Sonic in response.

The silhouette of what looked to be a rock-star from the 80s stood in the center of the stage. Lights were flung from the floor in many vibrant colors. The figure's hair swished to the side and the new humanoid robot strode forward towards Shadow. "Hello… RIVAL."

"You say rival like it's a good thing," Shadow stated trying to keep his cold eyes from showing any interest. Truth was, he was excited by the sudden change of pace.

"Of course I do, Shadow. Everyone is watching now live at what's about to happen! I'm going to wipe your face off of the edge of the Underground. Or maybe I'll just take you all the way to King Asgore himself! Humans need to see my brilliance and it'll be by your souls that I'll let my dream come true!" Mettaton announced.

The smoke cleared and Shadow's eyes widened at the stylish star stealing the stage. His pink, robotic body and shiny black hair gleamed in the light. At first, all Shadow could think was 'Legs So Hot' over and over. Of course, this was what everyone thought, right?

"Oh my gosh…," Sonic and Lily said in sync at the TV star in the spotlight.

"So…, this is a death battle or something?" Shadow asked as he heard the crowd roar beneath his feet and giant speakers rise from the floor. The disco ball hung down and gleamed with the light of a million suns. Suddenly, the floor shot up into the sky!

"WHY, YES! It is time for the big finale! This show will have its final burst of drama, romance, and BLOODSHED!"

Battle mode flickered on and Shadow's soul appeared. Sonic and Lily were left in the background to watch all of the action. Why did Shadow get to have all the fun? They glanced up at the big screen to see Mettaton busting moves glamorously on the stage. Death By Glamour picked up and blasted through the speakers. The audience and fangirls screamed!

Shadow was looking frantically through his act menu. He didn't know what to do. Pose? Heel Turn? What did that even mean? He could brag. He then wondered why he even needed an act menu and shoved it to the side. He smirked to Sonic who was in the audience. "Hey, Faker! Get my electric!" Shadow commanded.

"Oh, now you want it!" Sonic yelled as he ran off to find it. A minute later he was back with a black and red double-necked guitar. It looked sort of like Sonic's guitar from Sonic Underground. Shadow nodded and took it from Sonic's hands.

"He can play that thing?" Lily asked with surprise.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me!" Shadow replied.

Standing tall on the stage, he held his guitar. The audience screamed more! Awesome instrument! +300 ratings! Mettaton nodded with approval at Shadow's instrument.

"Wow! But can he actually play the thing is the question!" Mettaton said tauntingly. He launched his Mini Mettabots at Shadow.

Thinking quickly, Shadow slung the guitar into position and blasted a note on it. Miniature chaos spears flooded from the strings and electrified the room. Mini Mettabots were exploding all around in fanatic bursts of light and robot parts. Destruction +100 ratings! Sonic fist bumped the air and Lily screamed her excitement. Shadow grinned at Mettaton's surprise.

"Guess I shouldn't have underestimated you! However, you don't understand the true power of my new body! Because…," Mettaton said with a sly grin. As his voice faded away, the Mini Mettabots sprung back to life and rushed in reverse back towards Shadow. The element of surprise caught Shadow off guard and sent his soul crashing into one of the bots. It knocked 5 health from his HP. Mettaton could reverse attacks! The audience then began rooting Mettaton's name. Surprise! +50!

"Come on, Shadow! You can't let one hit get you down!" Sonic screamed.

 _Shadow, why did you let that thing hit you?! How pathetic…_

"Shut up, Chara!" Shadow growled viciously. He snapped back into the game. Preparing a song in his mind, he glanced down at Sonic as if asking for backup. Sonic nodded excitedly and hopped into the fight himself. His soul appeared as well and a drumset appeared in front of him almost as if Mettaton had planned this. Lily rushed up next to him when she caught on. It was time for a concert!

"Shadow, what song?!" Sonic demanded over the loud music already blasting.

"Any Crush 40 song you can think of!" Shadow snapped back.

 _Crush 40?_

"You'll love this, Chara."

"Oh? What's this?" Mettaton asked with false curiosity. He knew this would probably happen.

"LET'S DO THIS!"

 _(Sonic Boom from Sonic CD by Crush 40 starts up)_

Sonic: _You can run,_

 _You can fly,_

 _You can reach the other side_

 _Of the rainbow._

 _(epic guitar moment)_

Lily: _It's all right!_

 _Take a chance!_

' _Cuz there ain't no circumstance_

 _You can't handle._

 _When you use your mind!_

All: _Sonic boom!_

 _Sonic boom!_

 _SONIC BOOM!_

Lily: ( _Trouble keeps you running faster…)_

All: _Sonic boom!_

 _Sonic boom!_

 _SONIC BOOM!_

Sonic: _(Save the planet from disaster…)_

All: _Sonic boom!_

 _Sonic boom!_

 _SONIC BOOM!_

Shadow: _(Spinning through a world in motion…)_

All: _Sonic boom!_

 _Sonic boom!_

 _SONIC BOOM!_

 _KER-POW!_

"What was that?!" demanded Lily as she looked to see where the explosion came from. The speakers that were once blasting music were now smoking on the ground and silent. All they could hear was Shadow completely rocking out on his guitar completely unaware. He switched songs and began to blast Megalovania for all the world to hear. The audience was screaming almost as much as the guitar was!

Mettaton was flabbergasted. "A-wha?! How can-?! Oh, for Pete's sake! FIX THE SPEAKERS!" he was finally able to scream at some monsters in the audience. They scrambled to fix them frantically.

Meanwhile in Snowdin…

"GO SHADOW! WHOOOO! NGAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Undyne as she lifted Sans and Papyrus's couch into the sky with determination and excitement.

"UNDYNE! PUT DOWN THE COUCH!" yelled Papyrus from on the couch almost in terror.

"NO WAY!"

Sans wasn't thinking about the couch that was soon going to be destroyed. He was thinking about how in the world Shadow could possibly know the song he was blaring on his guitar. Megalovania. Chara probably put the song in his head. He wouldn't have been surprised.

"SANS! ISN'T HE GREAT?!" demanded Papyrus who had abandoned couch and was now on the floor. Undyne was in the process of throwing the couch out the window.

"Yeah, Shad's okay. I still think that they're pretty great when working as a team."

"OUR LITTLE LILY'S ALL GROWN UP!"

"Shadow! You kick his big, shiny ro-butt!" Undyne chanted at the screen hoping he'd hear her.

Back at the Mettaton EX battle…

"Finally! Show them that they can't outplay us!" yelled Mettaton flicking on the speakers again. They exploded in an angry rage blowing Shadow back and drowning out his guitar music. Death By Glamor slammed into his ears and surrounded him. Sonic shielded his ears and Lily frantically looked for a place of silence. Of course, she didn't find any and didn't expect to find any.

Shadow growled and threw off the guitar so that it fell down to the audience. Members dove to get the falling instrument. Mettaton glanced down at the audience and produced a paper from behind him and a pencil. "Alright, darlings! It's time for the written course! Get out a pencil or pen because I need your honest opinion!" Mettaton threw papers and pencils at the three hedgehogs. "Tell me, what is your favorite thing about me?"

Jeopardy music kicks on.

As Sonic, Lily, and Shadow wrote each of their responses on a paper, Shadow was the first to spring to his feet with his paper that read, 'LEGS SO HOT.' +200 ratings!

Lily had more of an annoyed look that simply said, '...' which Sonic could agree with because he didn't even put anything either.

Mettaton didn't read any answer besides Shadow's. The robot superstar launched confetti everywhere for Shadow's amazing response. "BRILLIANT ANSWER! I believe this deserves a good heart-to-heart. Don't you think?" he demanded as the pink heart from within his metallic body that looked like a soul appeared before him. Mettabots zipped around the room sending electric shocks their way. Sonic sprung out of the way and Lily deflected the attacks with her blue swords.

Thinking for a moment about the pink soul, Shadow wondered if it operated the same way their souls did. To test this hypothesis, he drew his arm back and then launched chaos spears from his body towards the heart. Mettaton had a look of alarm on his face. "No! Wait don't-!"

As soon as the spears came into contact with the heart, Mettaton's arms fell onto the ground like limp noodles. Shadow smirked finally knowing how to defeat Mettaton EX.

"Great thinking, Shadow!" Sonic encouraged as he decided to do the next act. A disco ball drifted down from the ceiling and the blue hedgehog figured out what he wanted to do. He began to dance in a very disco-like style. Rays of different colors flew around the room and whenever he was struck by a blue light, he would freeze. Blue stop signs meant stop, after all. Cool dance moves! +50 ratings.

Mettaton growled at the hedgehogs angrily and started sending Mettabots after them… only this time, with bombs! "Who cares about arms anyway?! The legs are all that matter!" the superstar snapped.

Shadow blasted the Mettabots which harmlessly just fell apart in mid-air. The bombs had a more… explosive end. Sonic, Lily, and Shadow found themselves dodging the bombs Shadow was blowing up more often than the Mettabots.

Exhausted, Shadow went over to Sonic and pulled out a Glamburger which they had collected on the way there. He took a large bite of the Glamburger. HP fully restored! The crowd went wild! Popular food choice! +150!

Mettaton huffed again and summoned the pink heart soul from before once more. "You'll have to put your heart into this fight if you hope to win this! It's not over yet! You all will die! It's only a matter of time before you do!" he shouted threateningly.

Shadow refused to listen. He was about to launch a chaos spear at the heart when Lily shoved him to the side, held up her large blue sword, and in a split second, plunged the sword into the heart. Pink goop dripped from the heart and fell to the ground before smashing to pieces.

Mettaton gasped as his legs came crashing down and he collapsed to the ground. Lily grabbed her sword back and it vanished into particles of blue light. Shadow and Sonic ran over to her.

"Lily! That was incredible!" Sonic exclaimed in amazement. He had never seen her try to fight anything before.

"I'll admit, you proved to be very strong," Shadow complimented.

Mettaton opened his eyes from the ground and glanced up at the board towards the top of the room with a chart of all the ratings. The numbers were skyrocketing! He smiled at how high the number was. "My… I've never had so many ratings on my show before…" Mettaton forced a big flashy smile towards a camera on the side of the room. "I'm afraid this will be my final show! However, I will allow one call from one lucky viewer to talk to me before… I leave the Underground forever…"

A phone rang and a loudspeaker played the voice of someone Sonic, Lily, and Shadow all knew. "Um… Mettaton…? Hi… I really liked watching your show. You see, my life isn't very interesting…, but seeing you up on that stage, it brought excitement to my life… So… I'm guessing this is your last show…? Oh…, I've rambled for too long… Bye, Mettaton… Oh…"

Mettaton's eyes grew cloudy and he looked up to the sky where the speaker was projecting his voice. "NO! Wait, Bl-!"

 _Click…_

"He… He hung up…," Mettaton said sadly. Fighting back his feelings of despair at being unable to talk to Napstablook, he looked over at a show manager. "YOU! Get me another caller!"

 _Ring!_

"Mettaton! We love your show so much!"

"Mettaton, we'll miss you so much!"

"Mettaton… What are we going to do without you?!"

Sonic found himself getting sentimental about what he was hearing and suddenly felt bad about fighting Mettaton. Shadow shook his head as if he couldn't understand what he was hearing. Lily tried not to show that she was sad and fighting back tears. Mettaton looked up at the three of them.

"Listen…, my battery consumption in this form… is very inefficient. In a few moments, I'll run out of battery power. However, I'll be fine. Alphys can repair me. I suppose I'll be staying here Underground a while longer. You creatures have your idols in the world above… but, monsters… only have me," Mettaton told them.

Sonic looked at the robot incredulously. "You're letting us go to the surface?"

"You've proven to be very strong… Strong enough to even get past Asgore I'm sure. You must really want to go home…," Mettaton lifted his gaze back up to the camera giving his final smile. "And as for you my faithful audience, I thank you for everything! You have been a phenomenal audience to perform for… Fare...well…," he said before finally losing battery power.

The audience below was gone, the lights faded, the cameras vanished, and the room was completely silent. Sonic stood from the ground with his eyes away from Mettaton on the ground. He began to walk towards the door. "Come on, guys. The end is close now."

Shadow and Lily were about to follow when the door to the room opened. Fast, frantic footsteps raced into the room. Alphys.

"O-Oh my gosh! Mettaton! What happened?! Are you-?" She looked him over and noticed that no actual damage was done to him. "Th-Thank goodness… It's only the batteries. E-Even if it wasn't, I still w-would've been able t-to… fix him anyway. Or make just make another robot…," Alphys said to herself with a distant look in her eyes as if she were remembering something.

As the hedgehogs left her to Mettaton, they went into the room ahead. Alphys followed along right behind them. "H-Hey! Wait up!" she called to them.

Sonic stopped and turned around curiously. "Huh? What is it?"

Alphys stopped and her eyes darted to the ground as soon as he looked back. She fiddled with her fingers awkwardly and sweat formed on her forehead. "S-So… You're… going to see Asgore now, huh?"

Lily looked ahead and nodded. Sans and Papyrus had told her about this place. She knew they were close to Asgore's castle. "That's where we're heading. You can't escape the Underground without getting to the barrier first!"

Alphys took a deep breath and continued. "You know… maybe it would be better if you just… stayed here instead! You don't need to go back! Everything you need is down here a-and-!"

"And we need to go home," Sonic replied. He led Shadow and Lily to the exit.

"NO! Wait! I-I… I confess! Th-The only reason I was trying to help you before was because… Yes, I wanted to be a part of your journey b-but…, I wanted to convince you to stay. If you want to go home, there's something you have to do… I-It takes two souls to cross the barrier. A human soul… and a monster soul…," Alphys explained.

Sonic turned back to her with a look of confusion and panic. "What… do you mean by this?"

"I-If you want to go home… You have t-to kill Asgore…," she said. Alphys lifted her head at them in despair. "I'm sorry!" she cried before turning around and running away.

Sonic looked over at Lily who had an equal look of terror. It wasn't this that was bugging him. When Sonic turned to Shadow…, the red and black hedgehog didn't seem to care.


	14. Chapter 13 Bug In The System

Chapter 13 Bug In The System

Only now realizing what they had to do, the hedgehogs became reluctant to move forward. Sonic and Lily went slowly to bide their time to never reach Asgore. Shadow pressed onward almost with the spring in his step.

They went through a gray area where monsters told them the story of a monster and a human who became friends. The human was adopted by the monsters of the Underground but then became deadly ill. It was then that the child died.

Asriel, the monster prince from the story, absorbed the soul of the dead human to fulfill the wish of the human who he had grown to be so close to. With that soul, he crossed the barrier. The humans, when they saw him, they were terrified and attacked him, but Asriel was determined to grant the human's final wish to him. Once he reached the village the human once lived in, he laid the human to rest in a field of yellow flowers. Then… Asriel staggered back across the barrier, but he died, and his dust scattered across a field of yellow flowers like the one he laid his friend to rest upon. Heartbroken and sorrowful, Asgore declared war on all humans and Toriel left him soon after that and disappeared. They had four souls. There were three more in Sonic, Shadow, and Lily. All of the monsters had hope for the future…

But Shadow ignored their hope. He knew what was coming next. Images of bloodstained orange tiles and golden windows flooded his mind. "I'm close… To that place…," Shadow mumbled to himself.

The three of them made it to Asgore's house and went inside. It looked strangely similar to Toriel's house. Shadow looked in frustration at the lock blocking access to the stairs, but there was a sign telling them where the keys were. One was in a vase in the other room. The other was in the kitchen. Lily popped them into the lock and it clicked open. They went downstairs.

Once the monsters stopped popping up and adding to the story, they came to a long corridor. Orange tiles… Golden windows… The shadows of the three hedgehogs were stretched across the floor as if their own shadows were trying to run away from the light. Not a sound disturbed the place except for the occasional bird chirp. Shadow smiled holding the little present he had gotten from back in the house of Asgore.

"The king is just beyond this hallway. And then beyond the king is home," Sonic said putting on a face of determination. Lily nodded beside him.

Sonic and Lily led the way forward and Shadow followed close behind. About halfway through, someone stepped out from one of the shadows of the tall pillars in the room. It was Sans.

"Heya. So, you finally made it," his silhouette said.

"Hi, Sans!" Lily chirped.

Sonic blinked happily for a face he recognized. Perhaps he could give another solution! Maybe he could tell them the answer to the problem! "Sans! We're so glad to see you!"

Sans held up his hands for a second. "Whoa there! Let me say what I've gotta say first!" His gaze avoided Shadow completely. He cleared his throat thinking about what he would tell them. "I came to congratulate you on not accumulating any LOV throughout your entire time here. Usually, the first time someone falls down here, someone always dies… Believe me…, I remember each time clearly."

"Why would they do that?" demanded Lily curiously.

Sans heaved a sigh. "Whenever it'd start, I'd hope it would be because of self-defense and that the next time, they'd have learned their lesson. But as it continues… it becomes a different reason… Boredom. Curiosity. The need to know what happens when you abuse the power of determination."

Sonic tilted his head slowly. "Abuse the power of determination?"

"It gets stronger with the more LOV you get… It's an acronym. LOV is short for Levels of Violence. Each time you kill someone, you gain EXP: Execution Points. The more EXP you gain, the more your LOV increases," Sans explained.

"That's horrible!" Lily pointed out. "Why would you even need an acronym for that anyway?! It's not like a person could be so heartless that there'd be a need to have one!"

A faint breeze drifted through the hall. Not a sound was heard. Sans was almost amazed by this. On most runs where the human, Frisk, became a murderer… there would be a gust of dust flying around wherever they went. But there was nothing. The skeleton didn't want to give them the whole truth about what the human did. He just tried to shrug off the question Lily demanded him to answer. "An unfortunate accident many years ago is why."

Shadow flattened his ears in anger and disappointment. "That's all you have to say about it?! Surely… that human did something terrible, right? Only a mass killer would have created the need for LOV."

"Shadow, what are you doing?" Sonic asked when he noticed Shadow taking a few steps slowly forward. His expression was unreadable.

"I had no idea you were capable of remembering all of those resets… And why you of all monsters would be able to is beyond me! It's not fun when you're constantly hanging over me like a vulture watching my every move waiting for me to make a mistake…," Shadow growled. His voice became garbled the more he approached. An evil ring shot through the air as he spat the words. He almost sounded… like another person.

"Sonic, what's happening to him?!" Lily demanded clinging to Sonic's arm in panic. She had never seen Shadow like this ever and they both knew what was going to happen. Shadow had reached his limit. He was about to break.

Sans got a look of interest. He leered at Shadow from across Judgement Hall. "So…, you finally decide to show up… Showing your true colors on a pacifist run? I'd call that cheating. He didn't want you to take over his soul and your excuse is usually that your host wanted what you were offering them."

"I got bored. I got sick and tired of waiting around! He doesn't miss anything! And he never will…," replied a clear female voice. Chara's voice.

Lily squinted at Shadow who was now Chara's host and noticed his hand drawn back behind him. Upon closer inspection, she found something shiny and metallic. Her eyes stretched wide with fear and surprise. "SANS!" she shouted frantically before launching forward.

"Lily! Wait!" Sonic shouted grabbing her hand and pulling her back. Shadow wasn't safe anymore. "Is Sans in danger?!"

"Shadow has a knife!" she screamed.

As soon as she said that, Sans's eye flared a deep blue and he tried to move away from Shadow at the sudden information. His attempts were all in vain. "Wait! You weren't supposed to-!"

Shadow didn't listen. His knife was sent across Sans's chest and red began seeping from his wound. The hedgehog smiled fiendishly at his wounded victim. "It's time to fix what was broken. It's time for everything to end. It's time… to keep _my_ promise."

Sans didn't speak. At the very moment Shadow finished speaking, his body faded into nothing but dust. Sonic and Lily stared in horror at the monster who now stood before them. Shadow turned to face them. His eyes of insanity were blood red…

"You don't need to interfere. The two of you are nothing more than an inconvenience to me. I will be seeing you… very soon," Shadow mumbled. He shifted his bright red soul to his hand and held up his knife.

"NO, WAIT!" Lily shouted running towards him. She knew what he was going to do.

"You won't remember a thing," Shadow finished. He plunged the dagger into the bright red soul. Pain coursed through his body upon the impact, but it was the only way. It was a reset. The first reset. The world faded white and everything was sucked away. Everything went back to the way it was… at the exact moment, he and Sonic fell into the Underground.

 _Doesn't it feel good, Shadow? You killed the biggest nuisance in this world without breaking a sweat! Aren't you proud?_

 _ **You told me that doing this is the only way to free everyone. You told me it was the only way to fulfill my promise.**_

 _Well, if you are going to be this way and follow my lead, you might as well enjoy it~_ _ **:)**_

 _ **Chara, why do you want to do this? I don't understand. Why do you hate the monsters?**_

 _It's not because I hate them. It's because…_ _ **I love them**_ _. Now your job isn't finished. Your first victim in this run is here. Kill him first. You never liked him._

 _ **Sonic?!**_

 _Exactly. He will only become a problem as you go along. Just do it. If you don't, I'll do it for you!_

…

"Faker…, who do you think I am…?" Shadow asked resting on the yellow flowers looking up at the sky. There was no way out from there. The fall's impact was still lingering, but he knew he was perfectly fine.

Sonic looked over at him with a look of curiosity. "That's a weird question. You're Shadow! Did the fall give you amnesia again or something?" he asked.

"No… I remember everything… And sometimes I wish I didn't." Shadow stood from the ground and approached Sonic. "Because if I didn't remember…, I wouldn't have to do this…"

"Shadow? What do you mean…? What's wrong with you? Snap out of it!" Sonic said suddenly aware that Shadow wasn't who he used to be.

Shadow pulled out his knife which he somehow saved from the last run. He grinned fiendishly. "It's _**knife**_ to meet you, Faker…"

For the first time, Shadow knew what determination felt like. He knew what LOV felt like. When he first felt it, he became addicted to the feeling. Chara was smiling. He could tell. He didn't dare look back at his work. If he did, he would have felt bad about the flowers he ruined.

Flowey popped up with a knowing look. "So, you're back… I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later! You fought the impulse to the bitter end, but in the end, you gave in to it. Everyone does at some point!" he chirped.

Shadow shook his head without a care and began to walk by. "You're getting in my way. Leave me."

The yellow flower who was once putting on his friendly act suddenly looked annoyed. He put on his cruel, twisted face. "You know, it's often rude to ignore someone who's trying to have a friendly chat!" Flowey announced. He launched a vine at Shadow and pulled him back.

"Let me go this instant. Or you will regret it," Shadow hissed.

"Oh! A threat! How cute… Why don't you act on it?!"

Shadow held up his knife and jabbed it into Flowey's vine. The flower shrieked as a result. "YOU! You're not even supposed to have that yet! AUGGHH!"

The vine released Shadow and was sent back to the ground. Flowey bit back a long list of things to say and just shook his head. "Who are you?! Chara wouldn't hurt me! Not like that! We're supposed to be friends! She's supposed to be the only one who understands me!" Flowey sounded so whiny. He didn't sound like the scary villain Shadow once feared. Shadow had grown beyond his fear of the freaky plant. Chara just didn't care.

"Oh Azzy…, you always were a crybaby…," Shadow said with a hint of Chara's voice. He turned away and went to the next room. He touched the save point.

 **Determination.**

 **Save.**


	15. Chapter 14 Determined

**Chapter 14 Determined**

 **5 more left… 3 more left… 1 more left… Determination.**

I slashed left and right without much trouble. Whimsuns were the most pathetic things ever. All they ever did was weep. Froggits would only croak and then they'd be gone. Loox? **Loox** like they're gone. I began to see what Chara meant. They were all pathetic. How did I put up with them before? At that point in time, I was just trying to get out of this place. I didn't care who the monsters were or what they looked like. I did what I had to in order to be able to leave this place. Now I have a different objective. Free the monsters of the Underground. All of them. And there's nothing that's going to stop me.

 _Good job, Shadow! We've got all the monsters in this area it looks like. Wasn't it easy? Wasn't it FUN~?_

 _ **It was easy. The concept of fun is irrelevant.**_

 _Awww… That's so boring, though! You must think this is boring just because we're smiting all the weaklings first. Your fun will come in due time._

 _ **Believe what you wish, Chara.**_

I approached the room where I had previously met Napstablook to find that he wasn't there. Killing Napstablook would have been pointless anyway. Ghosts can't be killed. That would be the only ounce of mercy I would give anyone. My journey continued.

Puzzles, switches, latches, and locks. As I slowly brought myself to the end of the Ruins, I remembered an important factor that was in the last run. Where was Toriel? Nothing felt the same as it once did- which was fine. If she wasn't there or didn't appear, maybe I wouldn't have to kill her. Oh wait. I still will. She has the soul I need to cross the barrier when this all ends. That is, if I decide to do that. Chara doesn't seem to want to go back to the world above like everyone else does. Maybe one day, she'll tell me why.

 _This is interesting… Where did Toriel run off to?_

 _ **Is she supposed to be here?**_

 _Yes… Which worries me… Nevermind. Her house is just up ahead anyway. If she's anywhere, she will be there._

 _ **Very well then.**_

I touched the save point outside of her house and went in through the door. All the lights were turned off as if there were nobody home. Even if she wasn't here, we would still have to go through her basement to reach the exit to the Ruins. I decided to look around and see if anything changed. First, I went into the kitchen and found a large pie tin. It had not been used. No pie for me.

I looked at my old room. The same. Toriel's room. The same. The locked room. Still locked. Nothing else was different. Thoroughly disappointed, I went to the basement and descended down the stairs.

 _ **It's very dark down here. Why is it any darker than last time?**_

 _Don't ask me. I wasn't paying attention back then. At that time, I was merely observing._

 _ **Then why is it-?**_

 _SHH! What was that noise?_

"Stay… back… You monster…"

"Are you referring to I? Shadow the Hedgehog? Because monster… would be an unfair accusation. In this world, to be a monster is a compliment. I am no monster," I told the voice in the darkness. I found her…

"Why did you harm that innocent hedgehog…? Why did you slaughter those innocent residents living in the Ruins?! Why are you doing this at all?!" a weepy, teary voice demanded.

"Sonic wasn't innocent! You know nothing about him! And those monsters in the Ruins… I was merely setting their souls free. You will soon join them," I growled viciously.

The shaking voice in the darkness suddenly froze. It was as if the voice was never even there. A long silence passed and I saw a dimly lit flame light up before me. Toriel stood cradling the fire in her hands. Her fiery eyes blazed up to me. "If that's what you wish… I now know what I must do… As the previous queen of the Underground… I will end you, Shadow."

I didn't know why, but it made me feel good to hear her say that. Mostly because… I knew she wouldn't be able to. Nothing would ever stop me. Nothing. Some twisted, cruel part of me laughed at her statement. "Hahahaha! You wish that were true. Farewell."

 _ **(Shadow walking through the snow) *Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.***_

 _Awwww… Shadow, are you okay…? You look so gloomy! So sad! I don't like that face! This is supposed to be exciting._

 _ **I… I don't like this. I've never felt so much like a psychopath…**_

 _Shadow, this is not the time to start thinking too hard on things. This is the answer! There is no other way to free monsters! Letting them go to the surface will only get them killed anyway. Besides, you're curious as to what might happen. With the power of resetting, who's ever going to know?_

 _ **You really are a fiend.**_

 _That's not very nice. Just keep playing your part! There are entire legions of monsters to kill._

 _ **Snowdin Forest doesn't seem happy anymore.**_

 _That's a good thing. Speaking of which, isn't there someone coming up behind you?_

I turned and faced towards the person behind me. Last time, it was Lily. Would it still be Lily this time? Sure enough…

"Oh! Um… I'm sorry! I thought you were a hedgehog for a second there… But clearly, with a face and eyes like that…, you couldn't possibly be!" Lily stood in the snow and shifted her weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. Suddenly, she realized that showing herself to someone who didn't know about her could've been dangerous. "Y-You won't tell anyone you saw me…, will you? I mean…, being turned in to the Royal Guard doesn't sound very pleasant…"

I stared at her with a blank expression. A long silence dragged out between us. The good in me seemed to be gone and all I felt was stone-hard coldness towards everything. I couldn't feel. I couldn't speak except to say evil threats.

"Um… This is usually where you answer my question…?" Lily said awkwardly.

…

"Maybe you can't talk! Why didn't I think of that? Well, if that's the case, then I shouldn't have anything to worry about! My name is Lily. You look like you're a… Sabon! Was I close? If I was, then nod!"

…

"I guess not. Oh well! I'll guess later then. I have to go find Sans before Papyrus realizes I snuck out again… Perhaps we'll talk later! Bye, Sabon (but not Sabon)!"

With that, she was gone. For now…

 **Determination**.

That should be the last of them. I wandered through Snowdin Forest feeling nothing at all. My face almost felt frozen. Was it just because it was cold? I hoped that was it. I found myself hoping it was. The only hope I felt since the beginning of this.

Dreary dust flew past me as I continued down the snowy path. I looked for the familiar faces of Sans, Papyrus, or Lily. They were nowhere to be found. Last time, Papyrus had all of his traps and puzzles disabled to renovate them. This time was no different. Chara seemed disappointed.

 _I was looking forward to seeing his annoyed face when we walked straight through his puzzles! Now I won't get to feel the satisfaction…_

 _ **I'm sure you'll survive, Chara.**_

 _No I won't! I'm dead!_

 _ **Boo hoo.**_

I proceeded through the dark, dreary woods. Every gust of wind sent a lungful of dust down my throat… Each time, I'd cough and ignore the thought plaguing me that the dust I just inhaled was a monster a minute ago.

In the last timeline, Papyrus and Sans were messing with Doggo. Ringing the bell and then freezing still to torture the poor blind dog. However, for some odd reason… They weren't there… Someone else was. She seemed to be looking for them. Lily.

"That's odd… Usually, they're always here at this time! I wonder if maybe they-" She stopped and looked over to me curiously. "OH! It's Sabon-not-Sabon! Hi!" Lily sprinted over to me and nudged my arm. "I'm glad I found _someone_ I recognize! It seems like… everyone's kinda disappeared somewhere… That and the air is dustier all the sudden!"

I looked away from her with a blank expression. There was no way I was about to tell her. As long as nobody knew about what I did, I had the element of surprise. And for some reason… I didn't feel like killing her yet.

She took a hold of my arm and inspected it. "Wow… You seem to be suffering the most from this dust plague! You need a shower or something!"

I could hear Chara shouting at me to kill her, but I refused. Something just felt wrong about killing Lily…

 _You MORON! This is the perfect opportunity! She's completely alone with you in the woods! Just kill her already and move on!_

 _ **If a dog patrol comes by, they'll see her body and attack me. Then the entire Underground would know that there was a serial killer on the loose.**_

With that, Chara finally stopped speaking.

Lily locked her arm with mine. Her face was cheerful. It gave me chills. Horrible chills. Chills that made me question if what I was doing was really worth it. I squashed any thought that told me to turn back in an instant. Nothing would stop me. Not even Lily.

"You should come with me back to Snowdin! Then we can hang out more, Sabon! What do you think?" she asked me sweetly.

I nodded. Not because I wanted to go. There were people there. People in Snowdin. People to kill.

So, arm in arm, we went towards Snowdin. A serial killer and an unsuspecting victim.


	16. Chapter 15 War and Peace

**Chapter 15 War and Peace**

Snowdin Town. A play on words. Snowed in Town to Snowdin Town. If you're tired, stay at the hotel. **Because everyone there is dead.** If you're hungry, drop by Grillby's. **Because everyone there is dead.** If you want to read or learn, go to the library. **Because everyone there is dead.** Sorry. I mean the 'librarby'. The sign is misspelled. **The guy who wrote it is dead**. Then, if you get bored, you get to watch the skeletons do their thing. Two of them. A tall one and a short one. They appeared out of nowhere a few years ago. None of us know quite from where. **And who's to tell or know, anyway? We're all dead.** However, there are rumors… **That they're next to die.**

When Lily ran off to find Sans and Papyrus, I mowed through the town. Every last person. Whether if it got me LV or not. It was satisfying… I couldn't help but feel good about myself when Lily came back. For her sake, I hid my knife and acted as if nothing happened. It was only a dust plague and everyone stayed home, Lily. Only a dust plague… Everyone is at home.

"SABON! Hey! I couldn't find Sans or Papyrus anywhere… They've disappeared just like everyone else… Don't suppose this is some kind of epidemic, is it?! The evil dust of… dustiness!" she exclaimed looking around.

I looked over towards Sans and Papyrus's house wondering where they could have possibly gone. Chara seemed to be wondering as well. Everything was new to her. The way I was doing this run was obviously very amusing for her. Pleasing Chara would please me.

Lily looked around. "When I got here, there were _some_ people around… I guess they went home when all the shops closed… It feels so eerie here… I don't like it, Sabon… This place is always so lively, and now it feels… dead…" When she said this, she stood closer to me and clung to my arm anxiously. Like a scared little sister. I wrapped an arm around her to just… play along.

"Aw, Sabon… You don't have to comfort me! I'm perfectly okay! Besides, you're totally not my type anyway," she told me.

 _ **I killed your type earlier.**_

 _Shadow… Kill her now! There's literally no one here!_

 _ **And if Sans comes back…?**_

… _Stop making excuses, fraidy-cat._

Lily seemed to be despairing from the fact she couldn't figure out where Sans and Papyrus were, so I shot another glance towards their house. Gently guiding Lily towards the house, I formed a plan in my mind.

 _ **She trusts me. Worry not, Chara. I can simply accomplish my goal tonight while she's asleep.**_

 _Fine! But it has to be tonight!_

I wondered what would've happened if Lily figured out what was going on in my mind as we walked through the snow. I dared not to think about it.

"The door is locked, but I have the key. I can open the door," Lily said as she got the key out of her pocket and unlocked the door. We went inside the dark house and got the lights turned on. Lily plopped down onto the couch and turned on the TV to watch something. I looked at what she was watching from over her shoulder.

"Huh? Oh! Sabon, you know Mettaton, right? He's this super cool star in the Underground! He does every kind of show you can possibly think of. Dramas, news, anime, sci-fi, suspense, cooking, opera, you name it! Right now he's doing the news, so I'm going to watch that. Feel free to watch with me," Lily said to me. I nodded and sat next to her.

The show started and Mettaton had a serious look for the first time… He was standing beside Muffet who had a nasty glare on her face. "Everyone… An important message has just come in with _extreme_ importance… Reports have come in from the spiders of the Ruins that a genocide has occurred there with no survivors… This genocide took place earlier today… this morning."

Muffet inserted herself into the picture and took Mettaton's microphone. "All of my best contributors to our industry of spider pastries have been killed today! This will not be forgiven and we will find the culprit!"

Mettaton looked annoyed and took back the microphone. "Yes… Thank you for your statement… Everyone, listen well. The culprit's whereabouts remain unknown, so they may very well be sitting near you this very second… Be very aware… The spiders have informed us that the culprit looks like-"

I clicked the TV off as fast as I could to prevent Lily from figuring out it was me. She looked completely spooked from the news broadcast and looked over to me. "Why'd you turn it off…?"

I looked towards the ground with a guilty expression. I was faking my face, but she bought it. Upon seeing my face, Lily shook her head sadly.

"The spiders in the Ruins said that everyone there died… You came from the Ruins, didn't you? I'll bet you're upset that all of your friends and family were all killed… You're lucky that you were able to escape…"

Upon hearing her trust in me, a sudden jab of emotions struck my heart. I felt horrible. I felt sick… I clenched my chest with a look of regret sprawled across my face. How could I…? What was I thinking?!

 _Shadow…, what are you doing…?_

 _ **I… I don't like this anymore…**_

 _No, Shadow. We are freeing the monsters. All of them. Whether if you like it or not. Now keep your mouth shut and DO YOUR JOB._

 _ **But Chara… Let me stop… Let me reset… I want to start over…**_

 _*sighs* Listen, even if you want to reset, you can't. Because if you get any ideas of resetting… I'll take control of your body. I'll choke the life out of you while I possess your body and continue relentlessly killing. Shadow, there's no way out of this._

 _ **But… I don't…**_

 _Relax, Shadow. It's only genocide…_

 _ **Only…**_

When she said that, a mysterious acceptance came over me. Yes. It was only genocide. Nothing terrible. Freeing souls from the grasps of life. But from the depths of my soul, I could still feel the intense guilt twisting and writhing within me… begging for me to stop.

In the middle of my swarm of emotions, I felt someone's warm embrace around me… Comforting me… Lily. She was comforting _me_ …, a _murderer_. Internally shuddering at the thought, I lightly hugged her back. It hurt. I was lying. Everything was a lie. And… No one in the Underground was in as much danger as she was right this moment. I didn't want to hurt her… I wanted to be Sabon… not Shadow.

"You're going to be alright now, Sabon… I promise that you'll be safe here… I mean, if that killer makes it to Snowdin, I'll defend everyone with my life! Even you!" she told me with confidence in her voice. I felt another stab of emotions. How could Lily make me feel so… horrible?

She waited for me to withdraw from the hug first. As soon as I did, I saw her smile warmly at me. After seeing her trust and friendliness, I came to a decision…

 _ **Mercy.**_

 _Mercy?! What's wrong with you?! She must die!_

 _ **But Lily won't give me any LV or EXP. Killing her would be for nothing!**_

 _Shadow…, she'll stop you if she figures out what you've been doing… And you know she will._

 _ **I have the save points. If she figures it out, I'll go back and do it again… I just… can't… kill her.**_

 _I see… Well, if she's here…, I suppose that will make things more interesting! BUT… If anything happens that I don't like… I WILL possess you… and Lily… will be as good as dead ~ =)_

 _ **. . . I understand.**_

 _Good._

Amazed that I was able to gain Chara's approval without a fight, I kept my mouth shut. Mercy. My only mercy. Lily… I laid down onto the couch and rested my head down onto her lap.

Upon seeing my action, her cheeks burned red from surprise. "Wh-What are you doing?!"

Looking up to her face, I gave her a sincere, truthful gaze. I promised her… I wasn't about to throw away that promise now.

 _ **Maria…**_

Maria… Maria…? I knew Maria wouldn't be happy with me… Not now… Not after all of this… It was too late to save myself. To save my soul. But… I figured… I could at least save someone else's…

For the first time since the run started… I said something that brought a smile to someone's face. The first thing I ever said to Lily. The _first_ thing…

"Lily…, I promise that no one in the Underground will harm you… Not while I'm here. No one…"

…

…

…

 _ **No one will hurt you, Lily.**_

 _ **Not even me.**_

 _ **I promise…**_


End file.
